I 




Glass. 
Book. 



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tjin^ &aiu R Do^fa^coKrtTpii.'by Alfi»i Jim«» 





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MEMOIR 



DAY!]) HALE, 



LATE EDITOR OF THE JOUKNAL OF COMMERCE. 



SELECTIONS FROM HIS MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 



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hr 



BY JOSEPH P£>JTH0]VIPS0N, 



PiSTOR or THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH, NEW TORK. 




NEW YORK: 
JOHN WILEY, 161 BROADWAY, 

AND 13 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 

ISoO. 



No, I, 



Memoir. 



Amid many cares and labors more than abundant, I sit 
down to write a memoir of a departed friend. A variety of 
documents must be read, collated, and classified ; oral tes- 
timony must be reduced to Avriting, sifted, and arranged ; 
letters must be perused and whatever is of value in their 
contents must be woven into my narrative ; and the files of 
a large daily newspaper for more than twenty years must 
be examined critically for the selection of extracts and arti- 
cles. Yet the task will be a pleasant one. It will bring 
me again, as it were, in contact with one whom I loved 
and honored — with a powerful intellect and a noble heart. 
Already do I begin to perceive how little I knew and appre- 
ciated in his life-time him whose life and character I shall 
attempt to portray. His private journal reflecting from 
its brief pages his early religious experience ; his letters 
abounding with the generous sympathies of the husband, 
the father, and the friend, and revealing as amid banks of 
flowers the deep clear- stream of a spiritual life; his arti- 
cles embracing a wide range of subjects — moral, political, 
economical, religious, ecclesiastical, — and not only equal in 
depth, discrimination, comprehensiveness, originality, and 
force, to any productions of the same class, but vieing at 
times with the more elaborate productions of philosophers, 
statesmen, and divines ; — these cause me to feel tliat I am 
about to delineate no common man, and, wliile I despair of 



6 MEMOIR. 

doing justice to his memory, most earnestly to desire that I 
may be enabled so to conceive of his character as fairly to 
impress upon these pages its bold and massive features, 
and if possible to transfer also its more delicate lines and 
gentler shades. I would have others see the inward work- 
ings of a mind and heart which have stamped indelibly their 
impress upon society and the Church. 

Just now, too, there is in this church which he established, 
and to which he devoted the last years of his life, a revival 
of religion, which originated apparently in connection with 
his death, and the hcaveidy atmosphere around seems to 
bear me up toward a nearer communion with him who has 
put off this earthly house for " a building of God, not made 
with hands." 

I come then cheerfully to this unusual task ; which, by 
God's blessing, I hope to accomplish for His glory, and the 
good of His Church. 

The name of Hale appears in the earliest records of New 
England. The family has been traced back to Thomas 
Hale of Codicote, Hertfordshire, England, Avho lived in the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. The present represent- 
ative in England, is William Hale, Esq., of King's Wal- 
den, Hertfordshire ; the line being quite distinct from that 
of Sir Matthew Hale, and the family arms different. The 
Hales were among the first settlers of Charlestown and Old 
Newbury, in Massachusetts. Robert Hale, the first emi- 
gi'ant, was one of the founders of the church in Charles- 
town in 1632, and a deacon of the same ; his son. Rev. 
John Hale, was the first pastor of the church in Beverly, 
which office he filled with ability and favor for nearly forty 
years. He was somewhat distinguished as an author, and 
was public-spirited and influential as a citizen.* Early in 

* See Appendix A. 



THEHALEFAMILY. 7 

the last century, the branch of the family from which the 
subject of this memoir was descended, emigrated from New- 
bury to Coventry, Connecticut. Richard, the head of this 
branch, was grandson of Rev. John Hale, and fatlier of 
Nathan Hale, " the 'hero spy of the Revolution," Avho 
was seized and executed by the British.* Another son of 
Richard was Rev. David Hale, who was for several years 
settled in Lisbon, Connecticut, as pastor of the Congre- 
gational church in that town, and who was the father of 
tite late David Hale of New York. Of this excellent 
man a memoir might be written which would be profitable 
to Christians in every station of life. Only the leading 
facts in his history can be mentioned here. After a brief 
but successful ministry to the church in Lisbon, the failure 
of his health obliged him to relinquish preaching, and he 
then devoted himself to the instruction of youth in a select 
family school. Most of his pupils were from the neigh- 
boring towns of New London and Norwich ; where some 
are still living, who cherish with grateful affection the 
memory of their kind and faithful teacher. 

Li 1804, Mr. Hale came into possession of the ancestral 
estate in South Coventry, and removed thither the same 
year, where he continued to reside till his death. Here, 
while he did not wholly relinquish the congenial employment 
of teaching, he devoted himself principally to farming, and 
by the system which he introduced in every department, he 
soon made his farm a model for the neighborhood. So com- 
plete was the order with which everything on the premises 
was arranged, that a gentleman who in his boyhood was ah 
inmate of Mr. Hale's family, lately remarked to the writer, 
that if things remained as they were thirty years ago, he 
could go now in the darkest night and put his hand on the 
rake, the hoe, the pitchfork, or any other utensil belonging 
to the farm. 

* Sec Appendix B. 



8 MEMOIR. 

The interior affairs of the househola were conducted with 
like method and rcguhiritj. There was a fixed liour for 
rising and retiring, for devotional exercises, and for every 
meal. Order was the law of the house and of the farm ; 
and whoever Avas employed in eith^, though but for one 
day, was required to conform to the established rules. 

Mr. Hale was as rigid in exacting what was right from 
othei's as he was conscientious and even scrupulous in doing 
right himself. His strong sense of justice and propriety 
rendered him obnoxious as an employer to the indolent, the 
wasteful, and the disorderly, but such an example of prompt 
and upright dealing was of great value to those who were 
disposed to profit by it. He possessed self-government in 
a remarkable degree, and as he governed himself, so he 
sought to govern his family and all who were in any way 
subject to his control. 

But Avith this stern adhesion to right was blended a kind- 
ness and a gentleness of spirit hardly less rare. He would 
never suffer a dumb animal to be abused. His horses and 
oxen were trained and guided in the field without fear of 
whip or goad. A generous hospitality always graced his 
board, and his charity, often bestowed in secret, relieved 
the wants of the poor. 

As a severe pulmonary affection forbade his ever resum- 
ing the labors of the ministry, Mr. Hale accepted the oflSce 
of deacon in the church at Coventry, which he filled to gene- 
ral acceptance for many years. From this it is apparent 
that he entertained no notions of the dignity and the inde- 
feasibility of the clerical oflSce, which would hinder him from 
serving the church in any station or capacity to which in the 
providence of God he might be called. And he was no less 
willing to serve his neighbors in civil affairs, for he was a 
justice of the peace, and judge of the County Court ; and 
such was his character for wisdom and integrity, that who- 
ever was conscious of the right of his cause, was always will- 



SKETCH OF REV. DAVID HALE. 9 

ing to leave it to ' Squire Hale.' Ministers and cliurches 
too, in that region, were accustomed to resort to him for ad- 
vice, and to rely much upon his judgment in ecclesiastical 
matters. To ministers in particular he was a valuable 
friend. He always retained an interest in the education 
of the young, and especially young men of promise. A 
Secretary of one of our most important benevolent societies, 
was induced to seek a liberal education by the counsel and 
the proffered aid of Mr. Hale. There exists in Coventry 
a fund known as the " Hale Donation" for the assistance 
of young men preparing for the ministry. 

Religion Avas eminently honored in this consistent servant 
of Christ. He kept the Sabbath strictly. Even in harvest- 
time, on Saturday afternoon his workmen were called from 
the field and dismissed with supper in season for each to 
reach his home before sun-down. Long before the tem- 
perance reform had become popular, Mr. Hale ceased to 
furnish ardent spirits to men in his employment, and gave 
them extra wages in lieu of that liurtful perquisite. 

His regard for truth was peculiar. He seldom gave a 
certificate of recommendation, and when he did, as for in- 
stance to young men who had been under his instruction, he 
confined himself to few words, and to the exact facts in the 
case. But his recommendation was a passport to employ- 
ment wherever his name was known. A single line given 
by him to the gentleman above referred to, certifying that 
he was " well qualified to keep school," was worth more 
than a whole page of ordinary testimonials. 

In sickness and suffering he exhibited firmness, pa- 
tience, and trust in God. On one occasion he submitted 
to an acute surgical operation without moving a muscle or 
uttering a cry of pain. As the surgeon and his attendants 
were conferring apart about the expediency of binding 
him, and friends were venting their gi'ief in tears, he 
exclaimed, " What mean ye to weep, and to break mine 

1* 



10 MEMOIR. 

heart 1 for I am ready not to be bound only, but also 
to die." 

Such was the father of the late David Hale. This brief 
sketch of his character will enable the reader to appreciate 
in part the influences under which the subject of this me- 
moir was trained. 

His mother, Mrs Lydia Hale, was the daughter of Samuel 
and Lydia Austin of New Haven, Connecticut. Her ster- 
ling character, strong judgment, and fervent piety, well 
qualified her to be the companion of such a husband and 
the mother of such a son. Having passed the limit of four- 
score years and grown venerable even in her widowhood she 
still survives her only child, and in a retired village of 
Connecticut, among familiar scenes and the few lingering 
friends of other days, with the calm assurance of the ma- 
ture Christian, she awaits the summons to rejoin the objects 
of her fondest love in an eternal home. 



The" preceding paragraph was in the hands of the printer 
when intelligence was received that the desired summons 
had at length come. A paralytic shock — the last of a se- 
ries with which Mrs. Hale had been afflicted — terminated 
fatally on the morning of the 28th of April. For some time 
past she had resided with her granddaughter at Rockville, 
Connecticut, a new village in the vicinity of Coventry, 
whither she had gone, as she expressed it, to prepare to die 
peacefully. She met the approach of death with the same 
dignity and composure for which she Avas remarkable through 
life. Her remains were conveyed to Coventry and deposited 
by the side of those of her husband. Some interesting 
reminiscences of her life, from her own pen, will be found 
in the Appendix.* 



* See Appendix C. 



EARLY LITE OF DAVID HALE. 11 

David, the son of David <and Ljdia Halo, was born at 
Lisbon, Connecticut, on the 25th of April, 171)1. It is 
easy to infer what must have been the early training of the 
child of such parents. Though he was their only child, and 
for that reason they may have been more indulgent to his 
childish faults, yet from all that can be ascertained, it 
woukl seem that his parents were judicious and faithful 
in the application of the scriptural principles of family 
government. His mother once remarked to the writer, 
when speaking to her of her son's usefulness and success, 
" My great desire has always been that David might do 
right and be a good man.^^ 

One or two anecdotes may be mentioned here to show 
that his parents did not discard the wisdom of Solomon. 
On one occasion Avhen David was chopping wood in the 
door-yard, his aunt cautioned him not to hurt himself, to 
which he replied in a bantering way, whereupon his father 
punished him severely though he was then in his 'teens. 

He himself narrated this incident : " Once, mother called 
me, ' David, David, David !' / didnH come, and then she 
redded me." 

There was nothing particularly noticeable in the charac- 
ter and conduct of David Hale in his boyhood. He was 
obedient, affectionate, playful, and sometimes roguish, and 
is said to have been characterized by timidity, gentleness, 
and extreme sensitiveness, rather than by their opposites. 
He always told the truth from infancy, and in his childhood 
and youth, though he gave no evidence of piety, he was at- 
tentive to the outward duties of religion. His only educa- 
tion was that of the district school and such instruction as 
he received from his father at home, which was limited to 
the common English branches. But in those days a com- 
mon-school education in Connecticut laid broad and well 
the foundations of knowledge. 



12 MEMOIR. 

When about sixteen years of age, David left scliool and 
began his business-hfc as a clerk in the store of a principal 
nu'rcliMut of Coventry. His employer, now a resident of 
Providence, Rhode-Island, says of him, " He was a faithful, 
trusty boy. He then manifested those traits of character, 
Avhich Avere in after life more fully developed, and for 
Avliich I believe all who had the pleasure of his per- 
sonal ac(|uaiutauce have, and ever will, give him full 
credit, viz. : frankness, truthfulness, and magnanimity, — 
the latter in my opinion equal to Webster's definition of 
the term.* 

" I recollect one incident that made an impressioiv on my 
mind. I then thought he was chargeable with a transaction 
that rather displeased me. I mentioned the fact to him in 
private. He stood up before me with his head a little 
higher than mine, and declared himself innocent of the 
charge, and with tears running down his face respectfully 
exculpated himself to my full satisfaction." 

After one year's experience of a clerkship in a country 
store, Mr. Hale began to aspire to be a merchant in the 
connnercial metropolis of New England. His prospects in 
Coventry were better than those of most young men, for he 
was sure of coming eventually into possession of a farm as 
good as any in the town. But feeling that this was " too 
narrow a circle for information or exertion," contrary to the 
preference of his parents and the advice of friends, he de- 
termined to go to Boston and obtain a thorough mercantile 
education with a view to that course of life which he had 

* The following is the (lelinition referred to : Magnanimity, 
"Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul which en- 
counters danger and trouble with tranquillity and firmness ; which 
raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of 
benevolence ; which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and 
prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest, and safety, for the 
accomplishment of useful and noble objects." 



CLERKSHIP IN BOSTON. 13 

marked out for himself. He was attractetl to tlie city also 
by a fondness for polished society. 

It was in 1809, when about eighteen year.> of age, that he 
left the parental roof to seek his fortune by his own exer- 
tions. As he drove into Boston in the old-fashioned chaise in 
which lie had traveled from Worcester, (there was no great 
Western railroad then), and with an honest simplicity in- 
quired of the truckmen along the streets w'.iere he should 
find a stahh; and an irui, ;uid was niiswercd by some with 
curses and by others with ridicule, he had Jiis first expe- 
rience of the rougli and tumble of Hfe in iiio busy, selfish 
city. But this was oidy tlie beginning of Ins annoyances. 
Not readily finding employment in tiie bns'ness which he 
had in view, he accepted a situation in a co.nmission house 
Avhere he experience*! such severe treatment that he ever 
afterwards spoke of his employer as his old master. 

On one occasion he was sent in search of a vessel whose 
arrival was reported ; he went to her wharf, but she was 
not there, and after searching for some tunc in vain, ho 
returned to the store and said that he could j ot find her. — 
" Can't find her ! Ha ! CanH find her .'" said his mas- 
ter with a sneer, hooting him out of the ston^, " Go to every 
wharf from Charles River to tlie Neck, and dou't come back 
and say you can't find her." 

Yet this clerkship, tliough far from corresponding with 
his dreams of Boston life, proved to liim a very salutary and 
useful discipline. Alluding to it afterwards in a letter to a 
friend, he remarked, " God chose to place mo in a situation 
where under a tyrant of a master, I should karii indifference 
to fatigue or hardship, and unyielding perseverance in the 
pursuit of whatever was undertaken ; a lesson which He 
knew, though I did not, was absolutely necessary for me." 
It was there that he learned never to admit tliat a duty re- 
quired of him could not be done. 

The occasion of his leaving this disagreeable situation was 



14 MEMOIR. 

an incident illusti*ative of the independence and the noble- 
ness of his character. A fellow clerk, a mere lad, had left 
tlic store on account of harsh treatment. Young Hale was 
ordered to go and entice him back, that his master might 
have the malignant satisfaction of kicking him out of the 
store. This he refused to do, and was turned out of his 
place in consequence. 

Thus ended the first year of his experience of city life. 
Disappointed and tried he Avas on the point of abandoning 
the idea of being a merchant, and even went so far as to 
Avrite to his parents that he would return home and settle 
on the farm, if they would remit him money for that pur- 
pose. This was what his parents had long desired, and they 
wrote immediately their approval of his decision and inclosed 
the money which he requested. The letter was sent by a 
neighbor, but on reaching Boston, by some strange oversight 
he forgot to give it to David, and carried it back with 
him to Coventry ; and before David received it he had 
obtained another clerkship and had entered into engage- 
ments which he could not retract. His new employers, 
Messrs. Bartlett and Denison, were of a very different 
stamp from the master whom he had left, and he soon 
began to feel that the life of a clerk was not necessarily 
the life of a drudge or a slave. This little incident shaped 
the whole subsequent course of his life. His parents were 
disappointed in the result, and not a little pained at what 
they considered his " foolish schemes," but, as is not unfre- 
quently the case, the Providence of God had a work in view 
for David which their foresight limited by their fondness 
could not then compass. As he grew up to manhood he 
began to entertain more serious views of the future, and to 
desire success in business chiefly as a means of comforting 
his parents, and of doing good in the world. The following 
letter, with all its humor, is indicative of the grave transi- 
tion from the romance to the reality of life. 



LETTER TO HIS FATHER. 15 

"Boston, Aiml 2G, 1811. 
** Honored Father, 

" Yesterday made me twenty years old. With what pleasure 
I once anticipated that day. And perhaps it has brought me as 
much pleasure as 1 ex[)ecle(l, but not exactly of the same kind. 
Then, I thought what a tine thing it was to be strong, and nim- 
ble so as to overmat(;h all the boys, and so that I could knock a 
ball or {)itch a quoit like men, and so that I needn't always be 
doing little chores, but more than all, because I should do what 
I Iiad a mind to, and be free. And when I heard men talk I 
frequently thought and knew tlieir opinions to be wrong, and 
wished myself so large that what I said they would believe. But 
now wliat am I ? Ncjthing it ap[)ears to me, but a mere insect 
ciawling about on this great molehill. Some of my species are 
running one way, some another, each one after his favorite crumb, 
and few care which way I run, or what is the effect of my race. 
When I look round and see the vast variety of great men, little 
men, wise men, foolish men, fat men, and lean men, of what con- 
sequence can it be v/hether I am long or short, whiteheaded or 
auburn locked, humpshouldered, hooknosed, respected or neg- 
lected ; whether I ride on the Pegassus of my own folly or go 
on foot ; whether I am happy or miserable ? The world will 
still go on just so whether 1 am in it or out of it, whether I sit 
still or get up and stamp. Then what is to be done ? Climbing 
the hill of eminence is like a pismire's crawling on chalk, as soon 
as he makes it his dependence, down he goes with a broken head 
for his exertions. We may rely on the aid of a divine providence 
if we make it our trust. 13 ut this should not at all diminish our 
own exertions. Every one has many objects, and some one in 
particular which will involve his anxiety and command his abili- 
ties. To suffer that favorite object to pass unattained would bo 
the consequence of fear or sloth, both of which let every rational 
being banish. The kind care of Heaven and my affectionate 
parents has brought me to be almost a man. May the continued 
care of Heaven make me a blessing to my parents ; nor suffer 
them to mourn that they are the cause of a creature's existence, 
who had better never been born. 

" Your dutiful boy, 

DAVID." 

Mr. Hale remained In Boston, occasionally trading a 
little on his own account, till after the declaration of war 
against Great Britain in 1812. This period embraced the 
non-intercourse act of Mr. Madison's administration and 



16 



MEMOIR. 



the embargo of ninety days by wliicli the war was preceded. 
From brief intimations in a journal which he then kept, it 
wouhi seem that he sympathized with the federal party in 
their opposition to these measures which he represents as 
having " laid American glory and prosperity in the dust." 
We learn from the same source that he went on several 
expeditions — some of them not a little hazardous — in quest 
of imported goods then contraband of war. Of one of 
these, by schooner to St. Andrews, his journal gives a 
minute and entertaining description. 

But the memorials of these few years are too scanty for a 
connected biography ; and yet it Avas at this time that he 
underwent the most momentous change of which a moral 
being can be the subject in this probationary state. When 
Mr. Hale went to Boston a young of man eighteen, though 
liis principles were ■\vell-formed and his habits good, he was 
not professedly a Christian. But he kept his morals pure. 
In a letter to his father, he says, " I have read Proverbs 
XXIII. attentivel3^ Of the virtues it inculcates I will say 
nothing, and only observe that I am seldom called to ' eat 
with a ruler,' and never join with ' wine-bibbers.' Of the 
rest you will be satisfied if you but put the question, Can 
he who most tenderly loves one female adorned with every 
virtue, hold intercourse with another who has clothed herself 
in infamy ?" He Avent indeed occasionally to the theater, and 
and in after life he used to say jocosely that it was by hearing 
actors speak that he learned how to speak himself at least 
loud enough to be heard on the street or in af)ublic assembly ; 
but how nuich ho thought of his school may be learned from 
his letters on the theater in a subsequent part of this volume. 
He never suffered himself to be contaminated with the vices 
which flourish in the courts of Thespis. His preservation 
from the common fate of young men in large cities was 
owing chiefly to his early education, which had firmly 
rooted in his mind the principles of vii'tue. He kept the 



CONVERSION. 17 

Sabbath ; and he continued to read the Scriptures in wliich 
from a child he had been taught. He attributed his preser- 
vation in this respect in part likewise to his connection with 
a singing school, Avhich occupied his leisure, and especially 
to virtuous female society. liut he needed a higher security 
than that aftbrded by early habits and good principles, or 
even by the society of the pure in heart. And this he found. 
At that time there was in Boston a preacher of the Gos- 
pel whose name and labors will not be forgotten in that city 
for many generaticas. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Griffm, then 
pastor of the Park Street Church. Of noble mien, of car- 
nest and effective eloquence, bold and zealous for the truth in 
times of controversy and peril, this distinguished preacher, 
then in his prime, drew around him a greater concourse of 
hearers, and especially of young men, than any other orthodox 
minister in Boston. Mr. Hale was an attendant on his minis- 
try, and to use his own words, Dr. Griffin's sermons often 
sent him home trembling to his room and to his knees. At 
length his convictions resulted in penitence and faith in 
an atoning Savior. This was somewhere in the early part 
of the year 1812. In June of that year he commenced 
keeping a journal in which he recorded his religious expe- 
rience and such secular matters as interested him personally. 
The entries in this journal were made at irregular intervals 
for about three years, when it was dropped and never re- 
sumed. He commonly recorded the texts with a brief out- 
lino of the sermons of each Sabbath, sometimes adding his 
own reflections. »The following extracts will serve to ex- 
hibit the general tenor of his thoughts and feelings. 

" Sahhalh, June 12, 1812. Am sensible that T have spent 
lliis Sabbath very impiopcirly ; neither my thoughts nor my 
words have been confined to heavenly objects. I must keep 
myself alone on iSundays or i cannot enjoy the company of my 
lieavenly Fatlx^r." 

" Sabbath, Sept. 0. To-day the sacraniciii. of the supper has 
b(!cn administ(!red ; but 1 was not at the table. Oh ! I cannot 



18 MEMOIR. 

sit at tlie table of the Lord in Heaven unless I am prepared here. 
I must first partake of that bread which came down from Heaven, 
here, or I cannot live on it there. Scarcely could I turn my 
back on that ordinance ; it indeed appeared a rich, a reviving re- 
past. I could have given myself away to enjoy it with ray 
Savior's smiles. Christ has died for me, and shall I not live for 
Him ? He has humbled himself and taken the form of a servant 
to atone for my sins, and shall I not be humbled for those sins ? 
He has suffered himself to be derided, spit upon, scourged and 
crucified for the love he bore to me who was his enemy ; and 
shall I return him no affection who is so much my friend ? My 
trembling soul scarcely durst trust itself in his hand. But I have 
nowhere else to go. Merciful Savior, I will throw myself at thy 
feet ; there will I lie till thy benevolent hand raises me up." 

Mr. Hale already appears to have been a shrewd observer 
of public men and affairs. His correspondence with his 
" honored father," of which only a few specimens remain, 
foreshadowed some of the opinions to which he afterwards 
gave such prominence as a public journalist. In this view, 
and as indicating the vigor of his mind and the readiness 
of his pen, the following extracts from a letter written at 
twenty -one, will be read with interest. 

" The politics of our country appear to have taken a different 
channel for a few months past. The storm appears to grow 
more calm, and the strife to be less for names, and more for prin- 
ciples. Violence is getting unpopular, and men are growing more 
into the practice of thinking for themselves. They see that the 
" Essex Junto " and federalists in other states have sometimes 
been rash, and that democratic proscription at home and paper 
cannonade on foreign nations, are but the pitiful ravings of mad- 
ness and the bravado bluster of cowardice. In fact, I think 
Americans are a;ettinfj a little wiser. If men in greneral should 
become so wise, as to believe their own senses even when they 
contradict their favorite leaders, and leave off to see with other 
men's eyes, to hear with other men's ears, and not refuse to feel, 
then demagogues must tremble and democracy tumble from its 
pre-eminence. Democrats have been worse to convince than 
" Doctor Doubty " himself. He upon receiving a good drubbing, 
acknowledged that some things were certain ; but democrats 
liave grinned and bore the cudgel, and still doubted whetlicr any 
tiling hurt them. But wc must not expect the time in a republic 



EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 19 

when patriotism shall govern. Legislative bodies will evor be 
scenes of cabal, influenced by a few demagogues, to whom in the 
fancied expectation of helping themselves, they will sacrifice the 
best interests of the people. These demagogues know Avell how 
to blow their own trumpets, to to,ot their own patriotism, and 
tell the people how infatuated they are, with love for such 
charming creatures. But Cassius, who for his philanthropy 
could slay Caesar whom he loved so much, could afterwads place 
t)/rants all over Judea and Syria, because they by their extortions 
were able to pay him the most tribute. Constitutions are but 
little protection against these rotten-core patriots. Different poli- 
ticians, like different divines, think directly contrary to each other, 
but all find their sentiments amply supported. No constitution 
can be made so tight, but that a legislature who think there is 
better picking the other side, will find some hole where they may 
crawl through. The Hon. Mr. Otis, in a very elegant speech on 
the reported answer to Gov. Gerry's ' Old maids' petition,' ob- 
served very truly, 'Paper constitutions are like paper kites, and 
every political boy thinks he may let them go the full lengtli of 
the string.' 

" Buonaparte says in one of his bulletins (soon after the battle 
of Jenna, and the issuing of the Berlin decree), he will fight 
until the British acknowledge that the rights of war, are the same 
by water as by land, that it is as contrary to the law of nations to 
capture private property on the sea as it is on the land. Will 
you send me an answer to him ? Is private property as sacred 
in ships as in houses ? If not, why is the distinction ?" 



In the fall of 1812 Mr. Hale returned to Coventry, prob- 
ably having been throAvn out of employment in Boston by 
the war. Under date of Sept. 18th, his journal contains 
tliis brief entry : " On Monday 14th, I left Boston and ar- 
rived at my parents on Wednesday. Thus I am placed on 
the ' War Establishment ' of Mr. Madison." He spent the 
winter of that year in teaching a district school at Coven- 
try. Here he became involved in a controversy with one of 
the most influential men in the town, whose son he had 
whipped severely for misdemeanor. The boy who was per- 
haps the largest in the school, had openly and contemptu- 
ously refused to do as he was bid ; Avhereupon Mr. Hale 
flogged him into obedience. The flogging was undoubtedly 



20 MEMOIR. 

severe though i*-s severity was much exaggerated by rumor. 

The father of the lad, CoL , a leading Federalist and 

aristocrat, was highly indignant at the insult offered to his 
family pride, r„tvi threatened summary vengeance upon the 
presumptuous teacher. Mr. Hale had already rendered 
himself obnoxioas in some way to the democrats of the town, 
and now " about half the district" was aroused against him. 
The character and issue of the contest may be learned from 
the account which he gave of it at the time in a letter to a 
friend. 

" Every measure was tried which malice could invent to injure 
my character, and to drive me from the school. I kept my place, 
and stood I trust, firm in my own defence against all their rage, 
until all other measures failing, the Visitors of schools (who have 
power to dismiss instructors for misconduct), were called. This 
was just what i wanted. I had a grand trial before them in 
which I was accused, perhaps of twentj'' crimes, such as feeling 
important, and talking politics. My accusers belittled themselves 
all that I could -•. ish, and gave me every advantage to defend 
myself and whip them, which I did in a long plea. The Visitors' 
judgment was mn only approbatory, but highly plauditory of my 
conduct. The whole was a somewhat amusing, though quite in- 
teresting scene. All this was too much for mj' enemies to bear, 
and they threatc^ned mj' person with attack. And I have no 
doubt some of t'lc m would have gladly sucked my blood. I let 
them understand hat I was not scared, but as tlie judgment of 
the Visitors had established my cliaracter to the world, I was 
ready to leave then, Avhich it was thought prudent to du." 

Not satisfied with the decision of the Board of Visitors, 
the aggrieved p-rty determined to carry the case to the civil 
law. A few days later Mr. Hale wrote to the same friend 
as follows : " "VMiat think you ? My mad Colonel has at 
length sued mo ! — before a single Justice ! and laid his 
damages at seven dollars ! I have had but few days' notice, 
and am determined to manage my own cause. The less no- 
tice I can take oi" it the better. I have no doubt what the 
result will be, b.it find that it requires considerable time for 
mc to arrange my thoughts for such an undertaking. This 



SCIIOOLCONTROVERSY. 21 

is the most important trial of all, and will, ii I am success- 
ful, elevate my character still more than what is past. To 
preserve and exalt my character is an object of very tender 
solicitude." 

But the Justice before whom he was sunimoned was one 
of the visiting committee who had approved of Mr. Hale's 
conduct, and he refused to try a case upon which he had 
already given his opinion ; so the young advocate " lost the 
opportunity of whipping the Colonel in his piea." 

This opportunity, however, was soon given before the 
proper tribunal, and the final result of the case is thus 
stated by Mr. Hale in his journal under date of July 3d. 

" July 3d. The long contest between Col. ■ and myself, 

respecting a punishment Avliich I inflicted on his son while at 
school in Silver street, I hope is now at an end, as it has been 
decided to-day in my favor by a court of law. This business as 
it has terminated will establish the government of scboolmasters, 
and it is probable that much good will result to society, as it is 
exactly what the ideas of many people at this time recjuire. 
On the whole, I trust that community has gained, and that I 
have suffered no loss in character, and I hope none in good 
nature." 

This decision was approved by the great majority of the 
better class of inhabitants in the district, and its influence 
upon the discipline of schools in that vicinity was felt for 
years. A gentleman who resided in Coventry at the time, 
and who afterwards taught school in an adjoining district, 
observed to the writer, that when the trial came on, all good 
people seemed to wish for Mr. Hale's success, and that he 
himself felt strengthened by the decision when he came to 
exercise the function of a pedagogue. 

This little incident was quite an afiair for a young man of 
twenty-one, and it brought out some of the characteristics 
for which Mr. Hale was afterwards so distinguished. We 
cannot but admire his fearlessness in the discharge of what 
he considered his duty to the school, his manly, independent 



Of) 



M K M O I R 



bearing throngli the trial, and the self-rehanco and con- 
fiik'nce in the justice ot" his cause which led him to under- 
take his oAVu defence against the professional talent engaged 
on the other side. It should also be mentioned to his credit 
that it appeared from the testimony of all the witnesses, 
that though he chastised the boy severely, he did not inflict 
a stroke after the boy had submitted to his authority. The 
chastisement was not inflicted in a passion but as a matter 
of principle, to impress the scholars with the diflerence be- 
tween *•' I won't " and " I will." 

During this temporary residence at Coventry Mr. Hale 
made a public profession of religion. His feelings in view 
of that transaction are thus expressed in his journal. 



" Sabbath, Jimc Gth, 1813. I have to-day taken upon me 
publicly the vows of the Lord. Wliat an act have I done ! IIow 
have I unalterably committed myself ! Alas ! I feel that I am 
wholly unable to perform my solemn obligations. I have de- 
clared in the presence of God, angels, and men — I have called 
Heaven and earth to witness, that 1 take the Lord for my God, 
Jesus Christ for my Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit for my Sanc- 
titii'r ; that 1 renounce the world and embrace the cross. I have 
pledged myself to ' walk in all the ordinances Lord blameless.' 
' But 1 know in whom I have believed,' that lie is able to keep 
me from falling, and to present me before the throne of grace 
clothed in the robes of his righteousness with exceeding joy. 
Blessed Redeemer do I not love thy cause ? Is it not my wish 
to honor thee. Oh thou who hast so much humbled thyself for 
me ? Kind Saviour I lean on thy almighty arm ; Avilt thou up- 
bold me, and make thy stiength ])erfect in my weakness. After 
the Su})per, the 100th hymn in Dwight's Collection was suni^. 
So congenial was it to my feelings that I felt myself overwhelmed, 
and conipt'Ued to yield m}'' emotions in tears. And so perfectly 
and so eloquently does it describe the feelings of my heart at that 
time, that 1 would ever have it connected in my memory and in 
my manuscripts with that transaction : 



" The promise of my Father'8 love 
Shall stand forever good ; 
He said and gave His soul to death, 
And scal'd the grace with blood. 



RETURN TO COVENTRY. 23 

" To this dear cov'nant of thy Word, 
I 8ft my worthlcaH name, 
I seal the engagement to my Lord, 
And make my humble claim. 

" Thy light, and strength, and pard'ning grace, 

And glory, shall he mine ; 
My life and soul, my heart and flesh, 
And all my pow'rs are thine. 

" I call that legacy my own, 

Whieh'Jf-sus did bequeath ; 
'TwaH purchas'd with a dying groan. 
And ratified in death. 

" Sweet is the memory of his name 
Who bless'd us in his will, 
And to his testament of love, 
Made his own life the seal." 

In the same connection are two other entries which illus- 
trate his habit of self-examination, and his views of Chris- 
tian duty. The first was made on his twenty-second birth- 
day. 

" Sabbath, April 25. This day is the anniversary of my birtli. 
Another year has been given me by a merciful God, and my 
blessed Savior has been enriching me with abundant privileges 
that I miglit bring forth some fruit. It becomes me then not to 
slight this grace, but to examine whether my life has produced 
any ' fruits meet for repentance.' Alas, what a wretched result 
must such an inquiry produce ! Well may the Lord of the vine- 
yard say, 'Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground.' But 
God is abundant in goodness, therefore have I hope. Oh ! 
Divine Savior, do thou intercede for me at thy Father's throne, 
that I may be spared ' this year al.so,' and under thy gracious 
culture may I be no longer barren. Do thou enable me this day 
to renew my vows to thee, and this coming j^ear may I devote 
myself more unreservedly to thee, who hast loved me and given 
thyself for me." 

The other entry was made some months previous, when, 
entertaining the hope that he was a Christian, he was called 
upon to engage in prayer in his father's family. 

" My father left home yesterday to attend his duty at Tolland. 
T have, by his advice, taken the lead in our family devotions. 
How poorly I perform my part my own sensations are witness. 
But I trust, that with some degree of humility and confidence, I 



24 



MEMOIR. 



am enabled to rely on that infinite fountain of wisdom, who has 
promised to be near all those who call upon Him. But difficult 
and embarrassing as this duty is, its performance affords the most 
heartfelt satisfaction, even in a parent's family, and surrounded 
with domestics. How delightful must it be then, when performed 
by the side of her who is most tenderly loved, and whose bosom 
beats with piety and congenial fondness. Strange that any whom 
sympathetic love has united should neglect this cement, this bliss 
of their affection, to raise their united hands, and present their 
mingled prayers to their heavenly Friend. Imagination paints 
the scene of family devotion adorned by love as almost up to 
Heaven. Religion will not destroy love but c'nasten it, and 
' love will not wound religion but adorn it.' " 

His correspondence at this time with the intimate friend 
to whom he was subsequently united in marriage abounds 
in expressions of sincere, humble, and earnest piety. A 
few extracts may not be unacceptable to the reader. Speak- 
ing of the best mode of influencing an impenitent person, he 
remarks : " It is no doubt our duty to endeavor to persuade 
sinners to love our dear Redeemer ; and though hints and 
arguments may very properly be often used, we shall be 
likely to make a deeper and more effectual impression by 
cultivating that sweet and gentle temper in ourselves, which 
Tfas so eminently exhibited in Him." 

In respect to self-examination and the evidences of Chris- 
tian character he makes the following discriminating re- 
marks : 

" In judging of ourselves and of all other things we are ex- 
tremely apt to be influenced by our wishes. Here we need be 
particularly cautious. Still we are not left to be continually in 
doubt. If we will accept a Savior's invitations we may have 
good reasons for our hope and stand fast, though with all humble 
and sincere Christians it will be with meekness and fear. It 
should be our earnest prayer that God would search our hearts, 
and see if there be any wicked way in them, and lead us in the 
way everlasting. We should not shrink from examining our 
hearts by any test which is sanctioned in Scriptui'O, but should 
endeavor to try ourselves by all tests to discover sin in all its 
lurking places, and be careful that there is no one which we un- 
knowingly roll as a sweet morsel under our tongue. We should 



RESIDENCE AT COV^ENTRY: MARRIAGE. 25 

bring ourselves to every test, not generally, but particularly. If 
we wish to know whetber we love Christians, we should not 
look round on Christians at large merely, nor on the polite and 
well-bred among them who would be agreeable to us without 
their piety ; but ask ourselves, Do I love that poor, ignorant, 
and despised servant of Christ who has nothing but his piety to 
recommend him ? In inquiring whether we are pleased with the 
sovereignty of God, it should be not generally but particularly ; 
not ' Am I willing He should do what He pleases with nations or 
with families, or bring upon me such afflictions as are common to 
mfen ?' but, ' Am I willing like Job to have my friends turned to 
enemies, and in poverty to be laid on the bed of anguish ?' 
Could I then say ' It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him 
good' ? " 

In tlie beginning of his Christian hfe, he manifested that 
delight in the Sabbath and in public worship for which he 
was remarkable till the close of life. On this point, he 
remarks : " Our pi-ivilege in the Sabbath is inestimable.. 
To assemble in the temple of God on earth for His praise 
seems the nearest approximation to the enjoyments of the 
blessed above." 

In the fall of 1813, Mr. Hale was drafted from Coventry 
and joined the army at New London, where he remaingd 
a short time as sergeant in the company of " Connecticut 
Guards," but was never called into the field. Soon after 
the retiring of the British from New London he was dis- 
missed from service and returned to his father's house, 
where he employed himself upon the farm. While living 
at Coventry he planted a fine grove of maple trees, because 
he was determined that he would not pay taxes for sugar, 
nor be dependent on the British- for it. This grove still 
flourishes in front of the old State-house. 

On the 18th of Jan. 1815, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Laura Hale of Canterbury, Connecticut, his cousin in 
the first degree, to "Whom he had long been ardently at- 
tached. Beautiful in person, refined in mamiers, well-edu- 
cated, and possessed of uncommon sweetness of disposition, 
and depth and fervor of piety, she was worthy of the en- 



.26 MEMOIR. 

thusiastic admiration witli which Mr. Halo ever regarded 

her, and which was not lost even in his chastened devotion 

to the companion of his later years. To her husband she 

"was as the ivy that twines itself fondly and gracefully about 

the oak, clothing its rugged surface with beauty, and gently 

shielding it from the rough blast and the pelting storm. 

His journal thus records his emotions in view of this 

union. 

"Jan. 20, 1815. Wednesday evening the 18th, I took upon 
me the sacred and tender obligations of a husband by receiving 
the hand of Miss Laura Hale. I pray God to ratify our mutual 
obligations, to confer his blessing upon our connection, which can 
alone render it a source of happiness. Oh that He would enable 
us to perform all the obligations wliicli we have taken upon our- 
selves, that He would be our guide in our pilgritnage here below, 
enable us to honor Him in our lives, and receive us at last as His 
children to dwell for ever with our blessed Redeemer in His 
presence." 

His desire that this relation should be a means of spiritual 
improvement is beautifully expressed in the following lines 
which he addressed to Mrs. Hale on the recurrence of her 
birth-day soon after theii" marriage. 

"Most gracious Gotl. Through thy beloved Son, 
Pardon our fhults, and bless I's as liuno own ; 
Support, defend us by Ahniglity power, 
And light our footsteps in the darkest hour. 
Teach us to thee, our duty ; and with zeal, 
May we perform the dictates of thy will ; 
T'he duties of our station may wo. know. 
What to each other and the world we owe. 
May we adorn the doctrine we've professed 
And as expectants live of glorious rest. 
Into thy hand our ini'rests we confide. 
Lord, 'tis enough if thou art glorified. 

Fatigued when nature sinks, with death oppress'd 
Oh take us to the realms of endless rest. 
Then Heaven's pure air we'll breathe, its fields we'll rove, 
And endless ages spend in praise and love." 

At the close of the war Mr. Hale again repaired to Bos- 
ton, but the prospect of establishing himself as a merchant 
appeared at first so dubious, that ho seriously debated the 



L I F E I N D O S T O N . 27 

question of returning finally to Coventry and settling down 
as a farmer. For a wliile he assisted his uncle Nathan 
Hale in the office of the Daily Advertiser ; but receiving 
favorable proposals from a gentleman who had some capital 
at his command, ho entered into a co-partnership for the 
business of importing and jobbing dry goods. The new 
house opened in September, 1815, with flattering prospects, 
and Mr. Hale was sanguine of success. In December of 
that year he wrote to his parents that in the four months 
in which he had been engaged in business, the sales liad 
amounted to foj-ty-four thousand dollars, and the profits to 
five thousand. For a time his career as a merchant was 
one of uninterrupted prosperity. His credit was of the 
highest character, and his sales and profits were large. But 
the current soon changed, and adverse circumstances com- 
pelled the firm to wind up its. affairs at the close of the 
second year. This was owing mainly to the fact that their 
stock was bOuglit at the high prices conseqiicut upon the 
war, and sufiercd an enormous depreciation when trade was 
revived by the restoration of peace. But the immediate oc- 
casion of embarrassment was the protracted illness of Mr. 
Hale from typhus fever, in the fall of 1817, which incapaci- 
tated him for business and produced such uneasiness in tho 
mind of his silent partner, the capitalist of the concern, that 
he hastily determined to bring it to a close. " My sick- 
ness," said Mr. Hale in a letter to his father, " caused mo 
the loss of a profitable fall business, and so entangled my 

affairs, that Capt. thought it necessary to stop my 

business, and though I could not see the necessity, nor can 
others since, yet his opinion created a necessity if it existed 
nowhere else. My creditors are disposed to re-instate mo 
handsomely, and it is a pleasure among the pains to per- 
ceive their strong confidence in my integrity and ability. 

Capt. for the present stands in the way, and I 

almost begin to think him a hard-hearted selfish maii,»but 



28 MEMOIR. 

must wait some days longer to make up my decision. * * * 
It is probable I shall resume my business. On my own ac- 
count these things do not trouble me ; on account of my 
creditors they do some, but they are most of them rich and 
generous men, and a good man told me I ought not to be 
troubled on their account, for the same wise Being had ap- 
pointed my misfortunes and their losses." 

The principal creditors of Mr. Hale offered to release him 
upon the most favorable terms, and to extend him whatever 
credit might be necessary to re-establish himself in business. 
A leading merchant of Boston, after proposing a liberal 

compromise, added, " If Capt. will furnish you from 

three to five thousand dollars, on your individual note for 
a term of from three to five years to commence business 
upon, I will give you a credit and so would all your friends, 
of whom no you^ng man has more." The condition of rais- 
ing this amount of capital was proposed as much with a 
view to Mr. Hale's own benefit as for the security of cred- 
itors. No young man ever stood higher in the confidence of 
the mercantile community, or found more friends in adver- 
sity. Alluding to this Mr. Hale remarks in a second letter 
to his father, " I hope I have not munnured at this dispen- 
sation of an holy Providence. I have been determined to 
preserve a good conscience,'"and the good opinion of my ac- 
quaintances both of my talents and integrity has made me 
believe that good prospects and a fair character remain to 
me yet, nor have I considered my stoppage a misfortune in 
point of property." 

But every proposition for the settlement of liis difficulties 
was embarrassed by the capitalist whose hasty action had 
complicated if it did not occasion them. This gentleman 
Beverely censured the active partners in the firm. Ho 
would accept of no compromise, and it was only by a pro 
tracted controversy terminating in a lawsuit and an arbitra 
tion^ that his claims were finally adjusted. The issue of 



LIFE IN boston: CORRESPONDENCE. 29 

the contest was quite favorable to Mr. Hale, both in a legal 
and a moral point of view. He did not however escape the 
tongue of slander, as no man ever did wlio was unfortunate, 
and even after he had removed to New York, calumnies 
respecting his former business transactions were occasionally 
revived by rival editors, though they uniformly recoiled 
upon their authors. 

During these two or three eventful years, Mr. Hale main- 
tained his Christian character alike in prosperity and adver- 
sity. Soon after he formed his first business connection, 
and while elated with his prospects, he wrote to his absent 
wife as follows : 

" The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered at 
Park Street last Sabbath. It gave me pleasure to reflect that 
my wife was engaged with me in the delightful solemnity. Yet 
I cannot say I had a good day ; my mind was filled with the 
world, and I exerted myself in vain to banish it. Bargains filled 
my heart, and left the dying Savior too httle room. But it was 
at my commencement. I trust it will not be so when the rou- 
tine of business is a little estabUshed : indeed, I find the case 
quite different already, for now I can banish business and think of 
something else." 

In another letter to the same dear friend, he thus gives 
vent to his pious emotions in reading the word of God : _ 

" How full of ardent and devoted piety are the Avritings of the 
Psalmist ! How fully does he express the desires of every Chris- 
tian ! How suited ai-e his petitions to our wants ! * Set a watch, 
O Lord, before my mouth ; keep the door of my lips.' God ap- 
pears to have been the most intimate associate of this eminent 
saint, the confidant of his heart, the friend to whom he flew and 
unbosomed himself in every grief, on whose arm he could lean, 
and pour his tears and feel his griefs depart. How do they lower 
down religion who make it to consist in proud good works, and 
selfish exertions for personal good, leaving out of the account 
humility, charity, faith, repentance, communion with God, and 
all the sources of a real Christian's highest happiness." 

The following extract is in quite a different vein. It is 
from a letter written immediately after the great gale of the 



JJU MEMOIR. 

23d September, 1815, when houses were unroofed, trees 
and chimneys blown down, and vessels dashed against the 
wharves or driven from their moorings : 

" Our trains of reflection on the storm, though both were se- 
rious and appropriate, were quite diflercnt. While you wero 
seeking a shelter from the storm in an Almighty Savior, I was 
stretching my ideas and enlarging the terrors which surrounded 
me, luitil I could behold that more miglity display of power and 
wrath which shall carry creation again into chaos. I could not 
content myself shut up in the store. I walked out into different 
parts of the town, and down to the long wharf w^here I could 
have a satisfying view of the tumultuous ocean. Saturday 
seemed an epitome of the united fury of the elements, and the 
tremendous crash of falling Avorlds, which shall give terrible 
grandeur to the final judgment-day. Indeed how much will it 
then be necessary to have a hiding-place from the wind, and a 
covert from the storm." 

The same element in the constitutional temperament of 
Mr. Hale, which brought him into sympathy with the wild 
and turbulent phenomena of the physical world, nerved him 
for the storms and conflicts of life, and enabled him to 
struggle and to conquer where many would have yielded in 
despair. When adversity befell him, his parents renewed 
their solicitations that he would return to Coventry and 
content himself with the peaceful occupations of the farm. 
But while gratefully acknowledging their kindness, and ex- 
pressing his desire to gratify them, he replied : " I love the 
storms of life. The fire-side has its charms, but it is the 
traveler beaten by the tempest who most enjoys them." 
Still it was not constitutional fii'mness alone that enabled 
him to face adversity. He had a devout trust in Provi- 
dence. " My trials in business," said he, " I feel have 
been hardly severe enough to do me good. We have not 
suffered the want of any comfort, we have not been mo- 
lested, and though somewhat anxious, perhaps I am not to 
expect ever to be less so. You know I am not apt to be 
concerned about the future." 



LETTER OF REV. S. SPRING. 81 

He did not suffer business cares to interfere with reli- 
gions duties. While separated from Mrs. Hale, for some 
months after his marriage, he observed, simultaneously with 
her, stated sea.sons of prayer and of meditation on selected 
pa,ssages of Scripture. Ho delighted in the Sabbath. 
Writing to his father, he says : 

" I regret to hear of your illness which confines you from the 
house of God ; but I am glad that ma, Lydia, and the old mare, 
have sufficient confidence in one another to venture to meeting' 
together. The Sabbath is indeed a precious season, and the 
liouse of God a precious place. Perhaps it is useful for us some- 
times to be denied the refreshing streams we find there, that like 
the hart in the desert we may feel our need, and pant for the 
water brooks. Some of David's most fervently pious psalms 
were written when driven from the courts of his God. I feel my 
privileges in this respect to be peculiarly great. 'We have no 
such lengths to go ' as you have, and we uniformly find a rich 
feast when we arrive. It is this which perhaps as much as any 
thing makes me fond of Boston." 

The correspondence of Mr. Hale even in the midst of 
business perplexities, whether addressed to his wife, his 
parents, or to others, was pervaded with the spirit of piety. 
The preceding extracts are but specimens of the tone of 
almost every letter. With him religion was not occasional 
but habitual ; as he himself expressed it, it was a " heart- 
business" and a " life-business." 

A communication addressed to the Avi'iter by Rev. Samuel 
Spring, of East Hartford, Connecticut, a partner of Mr. 
Hale in his first business relations, presents a pleasing pic- 
ture of his character. It is given entire. 

"East Hartford, May 10, 1849. 
"Dear Siu, 

" Your note men ted an earlier reply, and would have received 
it, had I been fully persuaded that it were best for me to under- 
take any thing like a compliance in form with your request. My 
connection with Mr. Hale, extending through a period of two 
years, though it gave me the best of opportunities to become ac- 
quainted with his character at large, was not of essential use in 



32 MEMOIR. 

securing a view of his religious cliaracter especially, and doubt- 
less for the reason that I was not prone to contemplate him as a 
Christian, but rather as a business man, and as a partner and 
friend. I was not then a professor of religion, and had but 
just begun to be interested in my relations to God and eter- 
nity ; although before we closed our connection I had made a 
profession, and was with him a member of Park Street Church. 
All my recollections of his Christian character are honorable to 
him, and pleasant to myself. He was consistent and firm, and 
had a testimony, I believe, in the consciences of all who knew 
him, to the stability and elevation of his religious principles. I 
distinctly recollect his punctual attendance on the weekly evening 
prayer-meeting in Park Street Vestry, and the Sabbath-noon 
prayer-meeting in the same room. He was also connected with 
one of the Sunday-schools of the city, and a part of the time, I 
think, superintended it. On him devolved the greater part of 
the labor of conducting our mercantile concern, as the elder and 
more experienced man ; and yet no fatigue and no complication 
of cares Avere ever admitted by him as an excuse for the neglect 
of duty, or a reason for evading his more public responsibilities. 
I have said that I was not much in the habit of marking his 
religious character ; and yet occasionally it forced itself upon my 
notice in so'Vne striking and agreeable way. I recall an instance. 
Before I found peace in believing, we were one evening in oiu* 
store looking over the entries of the daj', and had been occupied 
till it was quite late. Before we went home, Mr. Hale said to 
me, ' We have been talking about business, let us now talk about 
something better,' and then proposed some question to me, I 
forget the form, designed to draw from me either the avowal of 
a Christian hope or the acknowledgment of impenitence. I had, 
as he knew, been tlie subject of concern and occasional deep im- 
pression for some months. In answer to his question, I tokl him 
I was afraid I had no religion. He then kindly directed my at- 
tention to some things which he thought afforded evidence of a 
renewed heart, and at once proposed the duty of making a pro- 
fession of religion. I replied that I had no thought of it, and if 
I had, the fear of dishonoring the cause and wounding the friends 
of Christ Avould deter me from such a step. With an archness 
of manner pecidiarly his own, and which when occasion offered, 
lie knew well how to assume, and yet devoid of all severity, he 
said, ' O what do you care about the cause and friends of Christ ?' 
The aptness of the inquiry, the spirit and tone of the man, gave 
mc at once an entirely new view of one feature of the Christian 
charact«r. It was the first ray of light that came to the relief 
of a benighted and desponding mind. I began to balance the 
inquiry. if I had any regard for the honor of religion, and soon 



TRIALS IN BUSINESS, 33 

was led to think if I liad, then I ought to admit the hope that I 
was a Christian. I have not been accustomed to consider that 
evening as the commencement of a new hfe, or that conversation 
with Mr. Hale as the selected instrumentality of leading me to a 
Savior, and not till months after this did I trust that the Holy- 
Spirit brought me into the liberty of God's children ; but I have 
often tliought of it as a pleasing instance of his readiness, his 
Christian solicitude, and his tender fidelity. With all that was 
rugged and apparently harsh in his manner and voice, Mr. Halo 
had a feeling heart, and I have been led to regret that so large a 
part of my business connection with him was spent, before I even 
began to appreciate the more estimable points of his character, 
or profit as I might have done, by his spirit and example. 

" You arc at hbcrty to make what use you think proper of 
what I have written, and will accept my earnest wishes for your 
success in the service you have undertaken of preparing a me- 
moir of that excellent man. 

" Yours with Christian affection, 

" S. SPRING." 

Though for years after the misfortune referred to above, 
Mr. Hale was obliged to struggle with pecuniary embar- 
rassment, he was cheerful in the family and active in the 
church. He did not suflfer himself to be made uiiliappy by 
disappointments. Blessed with a thankful heart, and with 
courage, patience, perseverance, hope, he enjoyed hfe and 
improved it in spite of trouble and care. The increase of 
his family, while it brought upon him new burdens and re- 
sponsibilities, added greatly to his joy. The frequent allu- 
sions to his own little prattlers, in his letters to his parents, 
show how fond he was of the pleasures of the domestic 
circle. 

It was not till the spring of 1819, that he was enabled to 
close up his old business, though before that time he had 
become agent and part owner of a powder-mill, located at 
Chelmsford, which yielded him a fair support. " I shall 
have to labor," he says, " about two years in a profitable 
business to repair the misfortunes of the same length of 
time in a bad business. And for all this I care but little 
in solid reasoning, but it ' goes against the grain' some. 

9* 



34 MEMOIR. 

My profits clear of all expenses for the first year are 
$lj500, and my business has very much increased. I 
feel quite safe as to this world, but have great reason to 
mourn that I do not, as I ought, lay up treasures in Heaven." 

Towards the close of the year 1821, an explosion at the 
mill, Avhich did great damage to the property and suspended 
the business, involved his affairs somewhat seriously for a 
time. Still he was not cast down. He at once set about 
remedying his misfortune, and as a means of support until 
the new mill should be completed, he accepted a book 
agency, of which he writes as follows : " My time is pretty 
thoroughly occupied, but with the expectation of some lei- 
sure I have undertaken to get subscribers for Dr. Dwight's 
Travels, for which I am allowed one-third of the price. I 
have obtained about sixty, and made besides some arrange- 
ments with booksellers, so that I think the prospect is, that 
with continued exertion I shall make from four to five hun- 
dred dollars by it. On the whole I consider the last year 
as the one of far the greatest temporal prosperity which has 
ever been granted me. But wo need to see to it that tem- 
poral prosperity aiid the present happiness we all enjoy, do 
not tempt us to think or feel as if this were the place of our 
rest." 

His prosperity, however, again proved to be short-lived. 
But leaving for the present the details of business, we will 
recur to the development of his religious, intellectual charac- 
ter. Mr. Hale transferred his church connection from 
Coventry to the Park-street Church in Boston in the fall 
of 181G. Here he proved to be an efficient and valuable 
member. He was active in the Sabbath-school, punctual in 
his attendance at prayer-meetings — in which he never de- 
clined taking the lead when it devolved upon him — liberal in 
his contributions for the support of religion and for benevo- 
lent objects, and pi'ompt and energetic in the business affairs 
of the church and tho society. He took great interest in 



EDUCATION SOCIETY. Sf/ 

sacred music, and always occupied a place in the cliolr.. 
Says cue who was associated with him in church fellowship, 
" When Mr. Hale stood up in our meetings to speak or 
pray, he appeared both in person and intellect to be heail 
and shoulders above us all ; and such was his judgment, 
his energy, his decision, and his talent for business, that 
wo always put him on our committees." 

While he was connected with Park-street Church, an 
association of young men of that congregation was formed 
for mutual improvement, and for incpiry as to modes of 
usefulness. Several of the original members of the asso- 
ciation wore unconverted, but eventually they all became 
prominently useful Christians, and the association itseli" 
greatly promoted the interests of Orthodoxy in Boston. 
Mr. Hale early joined this association, and through his in- 
fluence chiefly it was led to undertake the education of 
young men for the ministry, and thus became a valuable 
auxiliary in raising up an evangelical ministry when the 
general tendency of ministers and churches in Massa- 
chusetts appeared to be towards Unitarianism. On be- 
ing elected to an important ofiice in the society, ho 
wrote thus warmly to his father of his own interest in 
the object : 

" Tlie Recorder of this week will perliaps afford you some pe- 
culiar satisfciction, as it will give you evidence that my character 
is fair at least among the most respectable, including the serious 
part of the young men of tlie town. Tlie society in the account 
of which you will find my name makes me feel that I have not 
lived in vain. It makes me glad that I was not contented with 
the space I could occupy in Coventry. Not because I am proud 
of the office — the cliief value I place on that is, that it will gratify 
you — but, because I think I have been the honored instrument 
of making it what it is. The society was not started by me ; it 
was intended as a small society at Park-street. I joined it with 
a determination, if possible, to change the object. I have been 
warmly supported, but I am extremely mistaken if my counsels 
and exertions have not raised it to an importance which makes its 
influence felt through the town. If four or five young men are 



36 MEMOIR. 

constantly supported in their studies, and the young men of this 
town are drawn together for this noble purpose, two very impor- 
tant objects are accomphshed — worthy the labors of many greater 
and better men than I. The fund left by Aunt Hale for educa- 
tion, I am decidedly of opinion would be much more economi- 
cally and effectively expended, not to say judiciously, in its ob- 
jects, were your large board of trustees to save themselves their 
laborious duties, and annually pay their income to the American 
Education Society. This is a society astonishingly efficient and 
admirably conducted. I wish you would propose it to the 
board. I believe there is nothing in the will to prevent. 

" I would not readily consent to forego the pleasure I derive 
from uniting in the great plans of benevolence which are going on 
here. Would you not be happy to be united with those all 
around you, who engage heart and hand in attacking Satan's 
kingdom, with a firmness and zeal which shake his old and massy 
walls ?" 

Mr. Hale was now zealously engaged for the progress of 
the Redeemer's kingdom. Alluding in one of his letters to 
a revival in Coventry, he says : 

" I am much rejoiced to hear of the gracious doings of God in 
yom- place. It is the earnest prayer of every Christian, ' Thy 
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.' 
In comparison with this, all temporal desires vanish into nothing- 
ness when he reflects that a single soul is of more value than the 
whole created universe. God seems now answering this prayei 
so long made by His people, and is beginning to fulfil the glorious 
promises made to His church. I am confident that the time is 
rapidly hastening when Christians will break the strings v/hich 
have so long resisted the demands made upon their purses by a 
dying world. May that kingdom flourish in our hearts." 

Again, speaking of the interesting intelligence received 
in March 1821 from the mission to the Sandwich Islands, 
he says : 

" Our concert last Monday evening was intensely interesting, 
and we are to have an adjournment of the meeting to hear more 
of the journal. It really seems as if the Lord were determined, 
by astonishing acts of favor to His children in their efibrts to 
spread the gospel, to compel them to trust in Him." 

The cause of missions had a large place in his aflfections 



missions: death of rev. d. hale. 37 

and prayers, and his purse-strings never resisted the de- 
mands of a dying world. He appreciated the influence of 
missionary reading, and remarked with reference to the 
Missionary Herald when it was started, that " parents are 
extremely guilty of withholding more than is meet, who do 
not furnish their families with this sort of reading. There 
is no way in which they can help the education of their 
children one-quarter so much at the same expense, and be- 
sides the money all goes to missions." 

In this particular Mr. Hale possessed in a high degree 
an evidence of piety to which President Edwards thus 
alludes in his diary, as a fruit of regeneration in his own 
case. " I had great longings for the advancement of 
Christ's kingdom in the world ; and my secret prayer used 
to be in great part taken up in praying for it. If I heard 
the least hint of anything that happened, in any part of the 
world, that appeared, in some respect or other, to have a 
favorable aspect on the interest of Christ's kingdom, my 
soul eagerly catched at it ; and it would much animate and 
refresh me. I used to be eager to read public news letters 
mainly for that end ; to see if I could not find some news 
favorable to the mterest of religion in the world." 

About this time Mr. Hale was called *o mourn the loss of 
his father, who died in February, 1822. The death of a 
parent whom he so much revered, whose advice he had 
sought on all occasions, and to whom he had been accus- 
tomed to submit all his private aifairs, was a very serious 
affliction. He had for some time expected the event with 
painful solicitude ; but when it occurred he was sustained 
by the consolations of the gospel, and became at once the 
stay and comfort of his widowed mother. In his first letter 
to her after he had returned from the funeral, he calmly 
directs her thoughts to Heaven. 

" I tnist, my dear mother, that we shall be enabled much to 
reflect upon the providence which calls us to mourn ; to reflect 



88 MEMOIR. 

with self-examination, and in such a manner that we shall be 
purified as gold. I think that the assurance we have that my 
father is now in Heaven will serve to give more fixedness to oui 
views of that world, and enable our thoughts to rest more steadily 
there. It is calculated to make us think more of the joys of 
Heaven, and to desire them more, although we are to love 
Heaven for its holiness, and because God is there, rather than 
because our friends are there." 

Mr. Hale always spoke of his father with profound re- 
spect and often with deep .emotion, acknowledging his great 
indebtedness to the example and instructions of his deceased 
parent. 

He once narrated to me an incident which showed how 
quick were his own sensibilities, and how deep was his rev- 
erence for his father's memory. Mr. Gough had been 
speaking very eloquently of the ineffaceable marks of past 
misconduct on the memory and the conscience. " Ah ! " 
said Mr. Hale, " I know well what that means. Onco 
when I was at home, my father, who had just undergone a 
severe surgical operation, requested me to shave him. I 
began to do so, but as he was nervous he complained that I 
did not do it right. This vexed me, and I threw down tho 
razor. Without saying a word lie took it up and with his 
trembling hand finished shaving himself. I don't think," 
he added, and here his voice choked, and his eyes filled with 
tears, " I don't think I have over shaved myself from that 
day to this without being reminded of my improper treat- 
ment of my father and feeling sorry for it." 

Such an acknowledgment, coming with the freslmess of 
boyhood from one who had seen half a century, showed how 
deep and strong had been the current of filial affection in 
his heart. 

In the year 1822 a new church was organized in Boston 
by the union of colonies from the Old South and Park-street 
Churches, with a fragment of the old Essex-street Church 
then on the verge of dissolution. To mark the transaction, 



THEUNlONCHUaCH. 39 

and for the purpose of a distinct designation, the name of 
Union Church was given to the new organization. This 
was the first aggressive movement of any importance on the 
part of the Orthodox since the development of Socinianism 
in Boston. It was therefore a movement of pecuhar interest 
and responsibility. A gentleman familiar with the enter- 
prise observes, " There was plenty of work to be done by 
the infant church, for the whole current of popular influence 
was against them. A congregation was to be collected ; 
Sabbath-schools were to be gathered and instructed ; reli- 
gious meetings were to be held, in the conference-room and 
in private houses ; and a multitude of benevolent enter- 
prises, yet in their infancy, presented strong claims for 
aid." 

Mr. Hale was of the number from Park-st. Church who 
united in forming the Union Church. In this new field there 
was a demand for all his talents and all his zeal. He was a 
member of the choir ; he was chosen superintendent of the 
Sabbath-school and was very efficient in that capacity ; he 
was on the business-committees both of the church and the 
society, ..nd assisted in compiling their manual and laws ; 
he was accustomed to visit the poor, to hold meetings in 
halls and in private houses, and in every way to labor for 
the kingdom of Christ. A gentleman of Boston, who was 
associated with Mr. Hale in the Union Church from its 
organization to the time of his leaving the city, says of him, 
" He was one of the most active and efficient members of 
the church — always present at our public and private meet- 
ings — always ready to lead in our devotions and instruct us 
by his exhortations — ^unwearied in his labors on our several 
committees, for visiting families — examining candidates 
for admission to the church — and conducting our church 
music. Of his labors as superintendent of the Sabbath- 
school I cannot speak from personal knoAvledge, having had the 
charge of another school. We admired him for the ability 



40 n MEMOIR. 

with A\hich lie presented truth in his addresses in our meet- 
ings, and for the clearness and soundness of his judgment in 
matters of business. In the language of our pastor, he was 
a ' strong man armed.' He was noble and gentlemanly in 
his deportment — upright and honorable in his dealings. He 
was warm-hearted and generous as a fi-iend — humble and 
devoted as a Christian. No Christian brother ever called 
forth more fully my confidence and my love. None ever 
laid upon me such heavy obligations of gratitude by his 
deeds of kindness and princely generosity, and in regard to 
no one have I a more unshaken belief that he ' sleeps in 
Jesus,' and has a ' part among all them that are sanctified.' " 

Another gentleman, who was for some time a deacon in 
the Union Church, says of Mr. Hale, " I was nearly asso- 
ciated with him, and we often took sweet counsel together. 
He was an active and efiicient Christian, labored in the 
church and Sabbath-school, and was highly esteemed by 
those who best knew his worth." 

But it was not only in the church that Mr. Hale rendered 
himself useful, though that was the sphere. of his highest 
activity. As a citizen he was pubHc-spirited, and zealous 
for the promotion of good morals and measures of reform. 

He labored in various ways, and at length successfully, 
to abate the nuisance of booths and liquor-stands about the 
Common. Being grieved at the desecration of the Sabbath, 
especially by parties riding for pleasure, he sought to coun- 
teract the evil by keeping a livery-stable which should be 
closed on the Sabbath, hoping by the result of this experi- 
ment to persuade the proprietors of such establishments 
to regard the Lord's day. He wrote occasional articles for 
the newspapers on this and kindred subjects. A scries of 
articles against the erection of a new theater in Boston, 
which he furnished for one of the daily papers under the 
signature of " A Father," attracted much attention by their 
vigorous style, cogent reasoning, and elevated morality. 



FIRST EDITORIAL LABORS. 41 

For a time Mr. Hale was a regular contributor to the 
Boston Recorder, and had, in fact, the editorial charge of 
one department of the paper, that of political affairs and 
foreign and domestic intelligence. EQs labors in this depart- 
ment attracted the favorable notice of several prominent 
citizens of Boston, who were interested in the project of a 
daily newspaper to be conducted on Christian principles, 
and undoubtedly led to his being invited to take charge of a 
similar enterprise in this city. In allusion to this project 
he remarks, in a letter under date of May 5, 1821 : — 

" My editorial labors do not much interfere with m};- other pur- 
suits ; they take a little of my time which I should otherwise 
spend at my store ; but most of what I do is at intervals of leisure. 
I think it is important for me to do it, as I i^^et five dollars a 
week of Mr. Willis. I am fond of a little such employmcait, 
and especially if what I do is well done, it may fit me, by the 
experience I get, and by showing my friends what I can do, for 
more important services of the same kind. There is a very 
strong disposition among leading Christians here to establish a 
daily mercantile newspaper to be conducted on sound principles. 
Mr. Evarts [then Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M.] has inquired 
of me if ray business would permit me to engage in the imder- 
taking in connection with some man whose pursuits are entirely 
literary. I should not be disposed to relincpiish my present busi- 
ness for any uncertain enterprise ; but I could do a great deal 
towards the editing of a paper without any infringement of con- 
sequence on my daily avocations. You will see what 1 contribute 
to the Recorder, by a pencil mark I have drawn under my 
articles." 

The project here alluded to was not carried into cifect, 
though Mr. Hale was generally regarded as a fit person for 
such an enterprise. In this connection an incident narrated 
by Gerard Hallock, Esq., the surviving editor of the Jour- 
nal of Commerce, is interesting as an illustration of the 
generous spirit of Mr. Hale and the course of Providence 
by which he was brought into a more intimate connection 
with the public press. 

" The circumstances," says Mr. Hallock, " which brought 



42 MEMOIR. 

Mr. Hale and myself into connection Avith each otlier, as 
joint editors and proprietors of this paper, are a little re- 
markable. I became acquainted -with him in Boston in 
1823. He was then in prosperous business as a merchant ; 
I was a stranger, comparatively very young, -without pecu- 
niary resources, yet resolved, if a few himdred dollars could 
be loaned me, to establish a weekly paper there, for which 
there appeared to be an opening. Scarcely had I made 
kno-w^i my object, plan, and wants, when the money was 
handed me by David Hale, who had collected it from a few 
friends, himself included, with the condition that I should 
' return it when convenient.' In a little more than a year I 
did return it, with interest." 

Though Mr. Hale seldom took part in public meetings, 
and never aspired to be an orator, he spoke occasionally in 
Faneuil Hall upon mcasui'es in Avhich he felt a special inter- 
est. He was prominent in a movement in relation to the 
public schools. The school inspectors of Boston were elected 
by general ticket, and as the Unitarians were a majority in 
the city at large, they had tlie control of the public schools. 
To neutralize or weaken this Unitarian power, Mr. Halo 
suggested that the inspectors should be chosen by wards, 
which would ensure the election of some Orthodox men. By 
a speech at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, in connection 
with more private efforts, he secured the adoption of his 
plan, and thereby effected a permanent change in the mode 
of electing these officers. For his efforts in this matter ho 
was assailed personally through the columns of the Daily 
Advertiser,, and ridiculed for having " coined words" in his 
speech, to which he replied over his own name. He also 
advocated at a meeting in Faneuil Hall the change of the 
government of Boston from town to city, and his speech on 
that occasion was reported with favor in the journals of 
the day. Public speaking, however, was not his forte, and 



DEATH OFMRS. HALE. 43 

he commonly preferred to express his views on public af- 
fairs through the newspapers. 

The year 1824 was to Mr. Hale a year of peculiar sor- 
row. Slie who for years had shared in all his vicissitudes, 
and whose sweet companionship had relieved so many anx- 
ious hours, was called to the rest and enjoyment of heaven. 
A lingering and painful disease, which she bore with Chris- 
tian patience and submission, terminated in death on the 
evening of the Sabbath, July 25, 1824. Says a female 
friend who was much with Mrs. Hale in her last sickness ; 
" She was not only patient but happy ; she remarked to me 
one day when I called to see her, not long before her death, 
that it was pleasant to think of the grave as a resting-placo 
for the body, asked me to put my hand on her emaciated 
frame, and with a sweet smile said, ' see how sickness is pre- 
paring it for the grave ;' she also spoke of a sermon of Dr. 
Dwight on the resurrection of the body, which had afforded 
her much comfort in her sickness, and repeatedly desired 
that certain familiar hymns, relating to death and heaven, 
inight be read or sung in her hearing. She met every 
one who entered her room with a smile ; and it was her 
constant practice, when the children came in to see her in 
the morning, to speak to them with her accustomed cheer- 
fulness, as if nothing was the matter ; because she did not 
wish any gloomy impressions of her sickness to be left on 
their minds. She made all her preparations for leaving her 
family, when she should be called away from them, with 
the greatest composure, as much so as if she had been only 
going on a journey ; every little thing that would relieve 
any one of care and anxiety she attended to ; she seemed 
to lay aside her own feelings to relieve others." 

It was the fervent prayer of this departed saint that her 
children, four in number, might " in the dew of their youth 
be devoted to God;" and she died expressing her strong 
confidence that they would all be early brought within the 



44 MEMOIR. 

fold of the Redeemer — a confidence which time has shown 
was not misplaced. 

I shall not draw aside the veil to picture the loneliness 
and grief of the widowed husband, left with the manage- 
ment of a young family, with no sister nor other female 
relative to assist him. A delightful home soon offered itself 
for his childi'en in the family of Rev. Levi Nelson, of Lisbon, 
Conn. ; Mrs. N. being a relative of their deceased mother, 
with whom she had ever been on terms of the most intimate 
friendship. But while Mr. Hale was thus relieved of the 
immediate care of four motherless little ones, of whom the 
eldest was not yet nine years of age, his loneliness was pro- 
portionally aggravated by their absence. He doated much 
upon his children, and though they were too young to cor- 
respond with him, he used occasionally to write them letters 
full of simple affection and good counsel. One of these, ad- 
dressed to his eldest daughter, is inserted here as a speci- 
men of the methods by which he endeared himself to their 
young hearts : 

Boston, March 5, 1825. 
My dear little Daughter, 

It is a very long time since I have written to you or heard 
anything about you. I suppose you liave in this long time grown 
some taller, and I hope some wiser, and some better. 1 wish 
very mucli to know how you spend your time ; what you do at 
school and what yoii do at home. I want to know, too, what my 
other little daughter is doing — she whom I used to call Miss 
Little Fudge. Indeed, I liave called you both by this name, for 
when you Avere three or four years old, you were so busy in doing 
nothing, so earnest to do a thing one moment and to undo it the 
next, that Little Fudge seemed quite descriptive of your charac- 
•ters. Now that you have grown nTore sedate and more steady in 
your purposes, I do not know but I must give up the old name 
of Little Fudge and call you little Misses Amicable, or Indus- 
trious, or some such thing ; but I can tell better when 1 hear 
what characters Aunt Nelson gives you. And I wish to know, 
too, what my little son Richard is doing, whether he learns any 
thing at school, and my little son David, whether he is sober and 
industrious as he used to be, and yet wears that grave counte- 



LETTER TO HIS CHILDREN. 45 

nance, so honest and so calm. It is not because I do not think of 
you, that I have not written ; but because I have so many things 
to take up my time and attention. I think of you very tenderly- 
many times a day, and I pray for you at least every morning 
and evening. For when I get up in the morning, I think that 
you are about rising, too ; and that you will get up with sprightly 
countenances and full of hfe and run about full of joy, and not 
think of a great many dangers that may be near to you. Even 
Uncle and Aunt Nelson, careful as they are of you, cannot always 
see the dangers and they cannot always be with you. But I re- 
member that God is all the time with you, and that He sees every 
danger to which you are exposed, and it is very delightful to ask 
Him to preserve you. When I go to bed at eleven o'clock, I 
think of you, and seem almost to see you fast asleep in }^our 
beds all quiet and secure ; but I know that if you open your 
eyes in the morning, it will be because God preserves you. 

I have lately given out to the Sabbath-School, as a story to 
tell in their own words, the account of the great quantity of fishes 
taken by the disciples. The account is in the last chapter of 
John. And I have asked the children a great many questions 
about it, most of which they have answered very correctly. I 
will tell you a few things which the children have agreed upon : 
One is that Jesus was one hundred yards from the disciples while 
they were conversing with him from the ship. You can easily 
measure a hundred yards and see how far it is. Another thing 
which they have concluded upon is, that the sh'q') in which the 
disciples were, was not such a great vessel with three masts, as 
we call ships in Boston, but a httle boat four or five yards long. 
I asked the children to give me an account of the Sea of Tiberias. 

After a moment's pause, Sarah T rose and stated the various 

names by which it was called, what sort of gravel the bottom is 
of, what river runs through it, how wide it is and how long, and 
a great many more things, which she seemed to understand as 
well as you would understand how to describe, the brook between 
your house and Esq. Jewett's. And what would you say if you 
were called upon to describe that brook ? I used, when I was 
as large as you, to play in that brook, to fish there and build 
littla dams to stop the water ; and once in the summer I went 
barefoot into the brook to play, and a water-snake bit one of my 
toes, which frightened me very much, but did me no hurt as he 
had none of that poison which rattle-snakes have. I believe, 
however, that I had presence of mind enough to kill the poor 
snake for his impudence. 

I am coming to see you as soon as the roads are a little better, 
and shall bring the things of which Uncle N. gave me a memo- 
randum. 



4G . M K M o I n . 

May tho Lord watcli over you, my dear child, and over all of 
you, my dear children, iind keep you by day and by night. 
Your ailcctionate father, 

DAVID H^LE. 

That his painful discipline proved to Mr. I Tale a means of 
higher sanctificatiou was manifest to all "vvho knew him inti- 
mately ; and so far from seeking to dispel its influence, ho 
rather sought to cherish and to deepen it through life. 
More than twenty years afterwards, while on a visit in Bos- 
ton, he went to his former residence and requested of the 
occupant permission to enter the chamber in Avhich his wifo 
died ; and there he shut himself up for hours to communo 
with tho Past, with the departed, with his own heart, and with 
God. 

This severe domestic affliction was followed not long after 
by reverses in business. Mr. Hale, still retaining his agency 
for the powder-mill before referred to, and which of itself 
yielded sudicient for his comfortable support, had also en- 
tered into a partnership for tho auction and commission busi- 
ness, and had become concerned in a woolen factoiy located in 
Worcester county. Jiut the general connuercial reverses of 
1825, and especially the unfavorable state of the market for 
woolens, reduced the house with which he was connected to 
bankruptcy, and threw him once more penniless upon the 
world. So liard is it for a young merchant to build up a 
stable business and amass a fortune in a great city. But 
Mr. Hale's life had not been thrown away ; in fact he had 
only begun to live, and tho samo Providence which had sub- 
jected him to so many trials had in store for him the most 
ample blessings in a new and congenial field of labor and 
usefulness. 

Meanwhile, he had formed a connection which restored 
to his domestic life its comfort and joy. On the 22d 
of August, 1825, ho Waa miited in marriage to Mis3 



JOURNAL OF C O M M E R C K . 47 

Lucj S. Turner of Boston ; the blessings of which union ho 
continued to enjoy till the close of life. 

In 1827, Mr. Arthur Tappan, with his princely liberality 
and Kcalous regard for the public good, resolved to establish 
in Now York a commercial new-spapor, to bo conducted 
upon principles of sound morality and true independence, 
and with a scrupulous regard for the Sabbath. Some friends 
of Mr. Hale, learning of the movement, recommended him 
to Mr. Tappan as a suitable person to take charge of the 
commercial and business department of the paper, to which 
post he was accordingly invited. lie ent(!red upon his duties 
at the commencement of the enterprise, Sept. 1, 1827 ; W. 
Maxwell, Ii^sq., of Norfolk, Va., a gentleman of high lite- 
rary reputation, being associated with him as the literary 
editor. The Journal of Commerce (as the new paper was 
called) was then about the size of the New York Tribune, 
or one half its own present dimensions ; and its daily cir- 
culation was only a few hundred copies — in fact much of 
its circulation the first year was gratuitous. Its editorials 
were generally upon literary subjects ; but its columns wcro 
principally devoted to business and news, the latter being 
diversified every few weeks by the arrival of a vessel from 
Liverpool, Havre, or New Orleans. 

Such was the expensiveness of the cnt(;rpri8e, that towards 
the close of the first year, Mr. Arthur Tappan, who had 
already advanced upon the Journal, thirty thousand dollars, 
determined to abandon it ; and to rid himself of further 
responsibility he presented the entire establishment to his 
brother, Mr. Lewis Tappan, whom he had just associated 
with himself in business. Several changes followed this 
arrangement. Mr. Milxwell retired from the editorship, and 
Mr. Horace Bushncll (now Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford) 
— who already evinced much of his peculiar spirit and power 
as a writer, and who had been an assistant of Mr. Maxwell — 



48 MEMOIR. 

was employed for some months as editor, while Mr. Hale, 
in whoso name alone the Journal was published, continued 
to manage the business department. The paper was under 
the general direction of Mr. Lewis Tappan, who thus an- 
nounced the principles on which it should be conducted ; 

From the Journal of Commerce, Sejyt. 1, 1828. 

" It will be a primary object to render the Jounial a first rate 
commercial paper, worthy of this city. To this end an extensive 
correspondence will be maintained, the most ably conducted peri- 
odicals will be taken, and no pains nor expense Avill be spared to 
procure authentic reviews of the markets, prices current, &c. It 
will be necessary also to maintain a boat establishment for the collec- 
tion of marine news ; and this must be done at our individual cost, 
as the pubHc and our establishment will be benefited by a competi- 
tion, and as it will be contrary to the principles of this paper to 
be associated with similar establishments which devote Sundays 
to the collecting- of news. By a vigorous competition we expect 
to prevent any deficiency arising fi-om an observance of the Sab- 
bath, by which we mean the hours consecrated as holy time by 
the general usage of Christians in this city, viz., from 12 o'clock, 
on Saturday night to 12 o'clock the night succeeding. 

" We shall avoid all participation in the gain of those fashionable 
vices which sap the foundations of morality and religion, on which 
the best interests of the nation depend. We profess to be 
friends of Christianity ; — not enthusiasts, nor sectarians — and by a 
liberal and firm support of the moral and religious institutions of 
the country, we shall hope to merit the patronage of all good 
citizens. Nor shall we fear, for the Journal, the sneering impu- 
tation of its being a religious newspaper, because it will refuse to 
derive emolument from advertisements that are at war no less 
with the political and commercial prosperity, than with the inno- 
cence, integrity, and moral weal of the community ; nor because 
it will seek to promote the purity and elevation of public senti- 
ment. 

" In short, it will be our endeavor to pursue an independent, 
courteous, and honorable competition ; to come out plainly against 
moral delinquencies ; while we hope to furnisli a paper, whicli 
will instruct and gratify the merchant, the politician, the literary 
reader, and the moral and patriotic of all callings and professions. 
On the cooperation of such we confidentl)'- rely. Let the experi- 
ment be fairly made, and who can doubt that, in the metropolis 
of this great nation, a daily paper, striving to excel its contem- 
poraries by a dignified discussion of all the leading topics of 



AN INDEPENDENT EDITOR 



49 



public interest, excluding vice in all its forms, will be extensively 
patronized." 

Such was the original plan of the Journal of Commerce^ 
as devised by Mr. Tappan. Mr. Hale differed from him on 
some minor points relating to advertisements and measures 
of reform, but in the main tlic principles stated above were 
his also. The attempt to establish a paper on such a basis 
excited the opposition and contempt of mere men of the 
world, while on the other hand some good men, with more 
zeal than discretion, were dissatisfied because the paper did 
not go as far as they desired, in its opposition to certain 
specific evils, or did not 'oppose them in the manner which 
they prescribed. Some who at the outset are loudest hi 
their acclamations for an independent journal, are most bit- 
ter in their denunciations whenever that journal has sufficient 
independence to differ from themselves! Their idea of an 
independent editor is an editor who will always take their 
advice, express their views, carry out their policy, publish 
their articles, defer to their opinion. And if at any time 
he refuses to publish communications from them which he 
deems erroneous or injurious, or to make his journal the ve- 
hicle of their extravagances, their unjust and slanderous 
imputations, or even of their mistaken though well-meant 
views, then, forsooth, he is sacrificing his independence and 
courting popular favor, and must be made to feel their 
righteous indignation. They will coerce him into their no- 
tions of independence by stopping the paper. 

An extract from a letter written by Mr. Hale soon after 
the Journal of Commerce was started, will show to how many 
petty annoyances of this sort he was subjected, how imprac- 
ticable it was for him to comply with the wishes of all his 
patrons, and how much wiser was the general course which 
he prescribed to himself than what others were so ready to 
suggest. The letter was written before Mr. Hale had any 

ownership in the Journal. 

3 



60 MEMOIR. 

" We are very glad to know all the objections which good 
people make (and bad too) to our measures. We have heard 
many objections. One good man says that our police reports are 
making light of iniquity and trifling with matters which ought to 
make us weep ; another says we ought to attack theaters and 
lotteries, and keep up a fire of hot shot until the whole fabric is 
overthrown ; another that we ought not to advertise rum ; an- 
other, that we ought not to advertise novels ; and ever so many 
others something else. And all, with one consent, say that the 
wrong of which they complain is a great deal worse than theaters. 
As to the novels, I have never heard it mentioned except in your 
letter ; and if I were set to answer the gentlemen who make the 
complaint, I should perhaps say, that they have never been at 
the theaters, nor read the novels, and they had better abstain 
from both, but that at any rate they know nothing of the matter 
whereof they affirm. But if I were to use circumlocution, I 
would say, that in advertising we promised to exclude but two 
things, and to these we have added publicly all transactions upon 
the Sabbath ; and we exercise a censorship with regard to quack 
medicines and several other things, not however pretending to ex- 
clude every thing which is abused, or with which sin is committed — 
for then must we needs go out of the world ; but taking no more 
ground than we can maintain, and hoping to help so to push for- 
ward public opinion, that by and by some other things may in 
the exercise of a sound discretion be added to our list of exclu- 
sions. But I am very willing to say that I have no idea of pro- 
scribing novels, if by the word is meant works of fiction ; for we 
must then exclude a large part of the best religious tracts and 
other publications. The effort which Chiistians once made 
against novels, when they consisted of little else than licentious 
love stories, was certainly praiseworthy. But to proscribe the 
historic and literary works of fiction of the present day, merely 
because they are called novels, would be as unwise as to proscribe 
the clergy of the present day because they are called by some of 
the same names, and discharge the same offices with the Catholics. 
The abstract question of the right or expediency of using fiction 
I need not discuss, or undertake to determine ; and there is no 
probability that those questions will be decided at present ; at any 
rate none that all modern novels will be so reprobated by the 
united voice of the religious and moral community, that the high 
ground can be taken against them that they shall or ought not to 
be advertised in the columns of business." 

As it was not the wish of Mr. Lewis Tappan to retain 
the control of the paper, he endeavored to procure an editor 



EDITORIALLABORS. 51 

to be permanently associated with Mr. Hale. In a few 
months an arrangement was made by which Mr. Hale and 
Gerard Hallock, Esq., then editor of the Jfew York Ob- 
server, became joint proprietors and editors of the Journal 
of Commerce. A guarantee fund of twenty thousand dol- 
lars was subscribed by several gentlemen for the support of 
the paper, and the editors were allowed two years to deter- 
mine upon purchasing the property by returning principal 
and interest. This they subsequently did, and thus the 
Journal was established on a safe and independent basis. 
But Mr. Hale passed through years of privation and self- 
denial before he began to receive an income of thousands. 

Although it was expected that Mr. Hale would devote 
himself rather to the commercial and business department of 
the paper, than to the departments of literature and politics, 
yet neither his thoughts nor his pen could be idle, and by the 
vigor and pertinence of his articles upon a great variety of 
subjects, he soon proved himself to be one of the ablest edi- 
tors in the Union. Self-taught as he was in every thing be- 
yond the rudiments of education, unskilled in the rhetoric of 
the schools, he yet wrote Avith a precision, a correctness, and 
force of language, to which few attain. Elegance of com- 
position he never attempted ; but his words " fitly spoken" 
were sometimes "like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
He always expressed himself clearly, concisely, forcibly ; 
and sometimes with that nice discrimination, both in words 
and ideas, which indicates the true philosopher. When we 
consider that he had no editorial sanctum; that his articles 
were written — not in a quiet study at home — nor in a private 
office accessible only by tortuous staircases and labyrinth 
passages, and guarded by spring-locks against all who could 
not give the magic ' Sesame' — but in the business office of 
the Journal, of late years on the corner of Wall and Water 
Streets, at a desk directly facing two doors, amid the rum- 
bling of carts, the cries of street venders, the hum of con- 



52 MEMOIR. 

versation, the receiving and disbursing of money, and inces- 
sant interruptions from calls and questions requiring his 
personal attention — when we consider that his articles were 
written by snatches, in such a position, and were often sent 
to the compositor without revision, we are filled with aston- 
ishment at their excellence both of thought and style, and 
at the power of abstraction and of self-government which 
must have been acquired in order to produce such composi- 
tions in circumstances so unpropitious. 

As an editor Mr. Hale observed the courtesies of the pro 
fession; he never indulged in low personalities ; even in the 
heat of controversy, and while giving full play to his extra- 
ordinary powers of humor and satire, he maintained the 
dignity of the gentleman and the Christian. And yet pro- 
bably no editor was ever subjected to a greater amount of 
personal abuse. He was ridiculed, he was caricatured, he 
was assaulted, his private character was calumniated, his 
religious profession and acts were derided. And this malig- 
nant opposition was commonly excited by the fearless utter- 
ance of truth in the discharge of duty. The remark of the 
late Mr. Adams might be applied to him : " To be slan- 
dered is not peculiar to me, but is the common lot of all 
men who have attracted the attention of the age in which 
they live." 

This treatment Mr. Hale never retaliated. His conduct 
towards his bitterest enemies was magnanimous. He could 
turn off their sneers and their curses with a laugh, — not be- 
cause he was indifferent to the opinions of others, — not be- 
cause he courted opposition, — not because his heart was 
ribbed in steel, — but because he had a consciousness of recti- 
tude which raised him above the shafts of slander, and be- 
cause he knew that the most malignant prejudice would yield, 
at length, before a stern integrity and a dignified self-con- 
trol. 

An incident of a personal nature occurred in the early 



ASSAULT AT THE EXCHANGE. 



53 



history of the paper, which occasioned some public scandal, 
but which illustrated some of the noblest traits in Mr. Hale's 
character, and won from him the general approbatioij of good 
men. An article appeared in the Journal of Com7/ierce, 
which, though not personal, was construed by a French 
merchant as a reflection upon himself. The aggrieved party 
demanded of Mr. Hale the name of the author of the com- 
munication, which he refused to give, though he offered to 
publish an explanatory article, if couched in proper terms. 
Hereupon the excited Frenchman assaulted Mri Hale with 
a whip in the crowded Exchange. The deportment of Mr. 
Hale, who had received some intimation that such an attack 
was intended, is thus described by one who was conversant 
with the facts : 

"Mr. Hale, who was by far the most powerful man of the 
two, received the blows Avithout resistance, and without ex- 
citement. He knew the writer of the communication, who 
was not an intimate friend, but rather the contrary.' By 
his conduct in this affair, he stood as the honored represen- 
tative of the peaceful principles of Christianity, as a mag- 
nanimous upholder of the freedom of the Press, and as one 
who preferred to be laughed at by ungodly men rather than 
to do wrong. I have never known, since living in this city, 
a more heroic act. Many who disliked Mr. H. reverenced 
his conduct on that trying occasion." 

The following is Mr. Hale's account of the affair, as it 
appeared under his own signature in the Journal of Com- 
merce of the next morning. After stating the circumstan- 
ces connected with the publication of the article, he thus 
proceeds : 

" In what followed the occurrences above-mentioned, one of 
the editors acted alone, and may as well act alone in stating the 
reasons of his conduct: though he cannot but feel that the mo- 
tives which actuated so unimportant an individual must be of 
very little consequence to the public. The undersigned pro- 



54 MEMOIR. 

ceeded to the Exchange with the paragraph which had been 
prepared, and with a sincere desire to make all suitable repara- 
tion for the unintended Avound Avhich had been inflicted on the 
feelings of Mr. M., presented it to him and his friend. After a 
few minutes consultation, Mr. M. inquired whether the paragraph 
which his friend had written, or anotlier which I then saw for the 
first time, would be inserted. As he insisted on an answer, I 
replied, that exactly in the phraseology which they then had, I 
thought they would not. 

" It is not my object to display the conduct of Mr. M. in an 
unfavorable light ; suffice it to say, that on receiving my answer, 
he at once assumed the appearance of heated passion, called on 
some one to hold his overcoat, which he took off with great vio- 
lence, and commenced a furious attack upon me with a rattan 
cane. I acted as I had long since deteimined to act, if I should 
ever be so unfortunate as to be placed in such circumstances. 
From the beginning, I perceived that I was in no danger of per- 
sonal injury — and reallj^ for such a flurry of boy's play I was 
not disposed, and am not now, to be angry. If the object was 
to inflict on me bodily pain, it failed entirely ; for I suffered none. 
If it was to disgrace me, I have long since made up my mind, 
that my own actions, and not those of other men, can do me that 
injury. No doubt the feelings of many of the gentlemen present 
demanded that I should fight. Perhaps all would have justified 
me in doing so ; though I have the pleasure to know, that my con- 
duct was approved by a large number, and for myself I find 
nothing in it to regret. Why should I have fought? To prove 
myself courageous ? Courage is that which enables a man to 
act well when in danger ; but in this case the essential of danger 
was lacking. If to prove myself superior in muscular strength, 
why, I suppose nobod)^ doubts that now. Besides, why should 
men be proud of that in which they are so much inferior to other 
animals ? I know men whom either Mr. M. or myself could 
overpower, who yet are entitled to our highest respect ; and 
others who could overpower us both, and who yet are despised 
by the whole community. 

'DAVID HALE." 

The commercial department of the Journal of Commerce, 
to which Mr. Hale gave his chief attention, soon began to 
attract the notice of business men as a most reliable source 
of information upon commercial affairs. At the time of the 
establishment of the Journal there existed a combination of 
the leading newspaper establishments of the city for obtain- 



ENTERPRISE OF THE JOURNAL. 55 

ing foreign intelligence ; but it appears to have been rather 
a combination of laziness than of enterprise — the object 
being not so much to obtain news promptly as to insure that 
no one should obtain news to the disadvantage of the rest. 
From this association the Journal of Commerce was jeal- 
ously excluded. But its proprietor, Mr. Arthur Tappan, 
was determined that nothing should be wanting for the suc- 
cess of the paper ; and accordingly he employed a separate 
news-boat, well-manned, to cruise in the harbor for the pur- 
pose of hailing vessels as soon as they hove in sight and 
bringing their news to the city with the utmost dispatch. 
This boat, which bore the name of the Journal, was sustained 
at great expense for several years. Her cruising was always 
suspended on the Sabbath. By ^ood luck, as men of the 
world would say, but rather by the blessing of Providence 
on industry and enterprise controlled by right principle, the 
Journal of Commerce in numerous instances obtained im- 
portant intelligence in advance of the entire commercial 
press of New York, and thus established a character for 
energy and promptitude which proved invaluable. This was 
particularly noticeable with regard to the French Revolution 
in 1830 ; the news of which was brought to the city by the 
Journal's news-boat, and was read by Mr. Hale from the 
steps of the Exchange, while " extras" were preparing at 
the Journal office.* 

During the exciting scenes of Jackson's administration, 
when the markets were affected by President's messages, 
cabinet councils, and senate debates, Messrs. Hale & Hal- 
lock established an express from Washington to New York, 
by relays of horses, thus bringing Congressional news to the 

* As the Journal was then printed on a hand-press, not more than 
two or three hundred extras could be struck off in an hour, — a fact 
illustrating the wonderful improvements in machinery made within 
twenty years. Now ten or twelve thousand sheets can be worked in 
an hour by Hoe's Cylindrical Press. 



66 MEMOIR. 

Journal of Commerce from twelve to twenty-four hours in 
advance of the mail. By this bold and energetic policy, 
together with a strict regard for accuracy and veracity in 
all statements of fact, and a careful avoidance of panic and 
imposition, this Journal gained the confidence of the public 
in a degree seldom attained. Probably no Journal of the 
time has upon the Avhole exerted more inlluencc on the poli- 
tics of the country. Its entire independence of party poli- 
tics has given more weight and authority to its opinions. 
As a matter of course it has been accused of vacillation 
and hypocrisy, by whichever party was obliged, for the time 
being, to encounter such a formidable opposition ; but all 
parties have in turn been proud of its advocacy and aid. 
It was a circumstance which gave peculiar satisfaction to 
Mr. Hale in his last illness, that neai'ly every question of 
political economy and of public policy which he had discuss- 
ed for twenty years had been settled in accordance with his 
own views of what Avas wise and right. This was particu- 
larly the case with the bank and tariff questions, in which 
he had taken a deep interest. He was a firm believer in 
the Free-trade system, and one of its ablest expounders. 
These subjects he had studied profoundly ; not in books — 
for he had no leisure for that — but m facts and principles 
scrutinized and shaped in the laboratory of his own philo- 
sophical mind. Nearly every great truth Avhich he uttered 
was, therefore, Avith him a discovery, an original thought ; 
and he was wont to trace the deepest principles of his poli- 
tical economy to the Word of God. 

There were questions of a mixed character, questions at 
once political, economical, social, and moral, upon which Mr. 
Hale's opinions and the course of the Journal of Commerce 
differed widely from those of the early friends and patrons 
of the paper, and of many leading philanthropists. His 
views on certain aspects of the temperance and anti-slavery 
movements were to some a matter of surprise and to others 



MR. H ale's opinions AND INFLUENCE. 57 

a matter of grief and vexation. This is not the place to 
discuss those views ; they will bo given in full in a sub- 
sequent part of this volume. Suffice it to say — and this is 
the opinion of one who differed from him essentially upon 
these points — that, in treating of those vexed questions, Mr. 
Hale spoke and wrote in accordance with his own honest 
conviction of Avhat wisdom, justice, philanthropy and 
Christianity required. It will be admitted that he discussed 
such questions witli great ability. His course in relation to 
the late war Avith Mexico elicited the wiunn commendation of 
the Christian community. His appeal to his fellow-citizens 
to desist from that unrighteous war is a speaking monument 
of his boldness, integrity, and magnanimity. 

His connection with a leading commercial paper in the 
commercial emporium of our country made Mr. Hale a pro- 
minent man in the community ; and yet he owed his position 
to his own energy, perseverance, al)ility, and worth, rather 
than to any outward circumstances. Few men have come 
into .this great metropolis who have made themselves y<?/^ as 
he did, — who have, to the same extent, attracted the attention 
and influenced the opinion of the public. It was a common 
inquiry with reference to any important public question, 
" What does David Hale say?" And though David Hale 
did not always say what pleased others, or what seemed to 
them right, he always did say something worthy of atten- 
tion, and something which made an impression on the com- 
munity. He had the reputation, too, of saying many un- 
gracious things which he never did say ; in short every thing 
severe, stern, positive, radical, in the Journal of Commerce, 
was imputed to him ; and he was often distinguished from 
the Journal and made personally, and by name, the object 
of tirades on account of articles which perhaps he had not 
sec^i till they appeared in print. But he was little affected 
by such assaults, and least of all could he bo deterred by 

popular clamor, or personal abuse, or threats of the with- 
3* 



68 MEMOIR. 

dx*awal of patronage, from a course upon whicli he had de- 
termined. 

It was tlie endeavor of Mr. Hale to give to the Journal 
the highest possible value as a commercial newspaper ; for 
he felt that its prosperity depended more upon a good repu- 
tation in that particular than upon the ability of its loading 
editorials. To accomplish this ro(i[uirod years of enterprise, 
perseverance, and toil ; but these were rewarded in the end 
with complete success. And here it should be noted that the 
success of the Journal of Commerce has fully demonstrated 
that a daily connnercial newspaper of the largest class can be 
published without any work being done in connection Avith it 
on the Sabbath. This was a prime object with Mr. Arthur 
Tappan, in sotting up tlie Journal ; and Mr. Lewis Tappan, 
when he had control of the paper, was in the habit for 
months of closing the office, in person, on Saturday night, 
and opening it on Monday morning, so as to insure the ces- 
sation of all labor on the premises for twenty -four hours. 
The proprietors of the paper have always had regard to the 
Sabbath in their arrangements for procuring intelligence, 
even when they had a private express rumiing in competition 
Avith tlie mail. This good oxanipk' has had a happy influence 
on the newspaper press. The Sabbath is much less dese- 
crated than formerly in connection with the daily press, 
though of late years the day has been more grossly violated 
by the publication and sale of Sunday newspapers. The 
interests of eomnievce can plead no necessity for the viola- 
tion of the Sabbath. The publication of the Journal of 
Commerce, on Monday, is hardly delayed an hour by the in- 
termission of labor at the office on the Lord's da}^ and its 
columns on that morning are as fresh and full as those of 
other newspapers. Mr. Hale always performed extra labor 
on Saturday in order to keep inviolate the day of rest. • 

But it is the religious character and life of Mr. Hale 



HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 69 

that will possess the highest interest for most who read 
this volujne. He did not lose his activity as a Christian 
in the laborious life of an editor. Action was his ele- 
ment, — in nothing more than in the high theater of God's 
purposes and of Christ's kingdom. On coming to New 
York he entered immediately into church relations here, 
and into the various departments of active Christian eftbrt. 
He made his daily occupation subservient to the cause 
of Christ. Says Mr. Ilallock, " His connection with the 
Journal of Commerce was doubly agreeable to him, be- 
cause it gave him a two-fold power of doing good ; first, by 
the moral, social and political influence of the paper itself, 
and secondly by the pecuniary emolument which it yielded." 
Soon after the starting of tlie Journal, Mr. Hale removed 
his family to New York, and lived for some time in a plain 
way in the nortli-eastern part of the city. He united with the 
Seventh Presbyterian Church, then under the pastoral care 
of Rev. Elihu VV. J3aldwin, afterwards President of Wabash 
College, Indiana. At that time Mr. Halo attached but 
little importance to the distinctive prhiciples of Congrega- 
tionalism ; he had never made them his study, and had no 
thought of becoming in any way an innovator upon the eccle- 
siastical usages of the city. In the opinion of one well 
qualified to judge, he probably did not then understand the 
diftercnce between Congregationalism and Presbyterianism, 
and if he thought on the subject at all, it was only to adopt 
the current opinion that the former system was suited to New 
England alone, and never could be established on this soil. 
It is important that this fact should be distinctly marked. 
Mr. Hale loved Christian liberty, and had always enjoyed 
it. He felt it to be the duty of church-members to bo 
active in all the affairs of the church, and he had never met 
with any official or ecclesiastical restriction upon his plans 
of usefulness. He was accustomed to pray and speak in 
social religious meetings, and to speak and vote in the busi- 



60 MEMOIR. 

ness meetings of the church ; and this full Christian liberty 
was so natural and proper, so much a matter of course, that 
he had not been accustomed to trace it back to certain prin- 
ciples of church polity. He expected to find substantially 
the same freedom in the Presbyterian Church, and it was 
not till he had been hampered in various ways under the 
constitution of that Church, that he began to study the 
New Testament with a view to ascertain what principles 
were there laid down for the constitution and government of 
churches. Mr. Hale did not come to New York as a secta- 
rian or a propagandist. The principles of Congregational- 
ism were in a sense as original with hhn, as truly the result 
of his own reflections on the New Testament, as if he had 
been ignorant of the existence of such a system ; for when 
investigating the subject of church polity, he went for infor- 
mation and authority, not to New England usages, but to 
the Word of God. 

He was first led to scrutinize the Presbyterian mode of 
government by the summary manner in which he was elected 
an elder in the Seventh Church. Not having yet raised an 
inquiry as to the Scriptural warrant for the ofiice of ruling 
elder, he had regarded the office with peculiar solemnity, and 
was therefore surprised at being informed in one breath, 
that he had been designated to this office, and that the con- 
gregation would be publicly notified of it on the next Sab- 
bs.th morning, and he would be ordained in the evening. He 
not only felt that he needed time to weigh the question of 
acceptance, but that it was due to the congregation to allow 
them more time to form their judgment of his fitness, and to 
bring forward any objections to his ordination. He finally 
accepted the appointment, and was ordained an elder on the 
11th January, 1829 ; and as the office of ruling elder is 
"perpetual, and cannot be laid aside at pleasure," and " no 
person can be divested thereof but by deposition," whatever 



CHURCH RELATIONS 



61 



virtue and sanctity his ordination imparted must have ad- 
hered to him tln^ough life. 

Soon after this event Mr. Hale removed his residence to 
the lower part of the city, at too great a distance for his 
family to attend the Seventh Church. Accordingly, much 
as they were attached to the church and its pastor, they 
were obliged to seek a more convenient place of worship, 
and as the first question with Mr. Hale always was, "where 
can I be most useful ?" he decided to unite in a mission en- 
terprise, then in its infancy, for building up a church (Pres- 
byterian) in the Bowery. There he remained for some 
years, though with no little inconvenience, till several of the 
leading members of the church had withdrawn, and the 
church being heavily burdened with debt, there seemed no 
longer any hope of sustaining the enterprise. In 1836 
the pastor — Rev. Dr. Woodbridge, of Hadley, Mass. — was 
dismissed, and in the year following the church was disband- 
ed. Mr. Hale now attended on the ministry of Rev. Dr. 
Spring, but did not unite with the church under his care. 
Here for a time he was treated with marked attention, and 
was often invited to take a part in social meetings ; but 
having on one occasion indulged in a freedom of remark 
about the state of the church, which gave offense to some 
present, he was thereafter doomed to silence by the most 
pointed neglect. In this situation he saw no prospect of use- 
fulness for him in the Brick Church, and the question came 
up with renewed interest, " Where can I be useful?" 

After wandering from church to church in quest of one 
that should be both congenial in its spirit, and promising 
as a field of labor, Mr. Hale began to attend worship 
at the Broadway Tabernacle, and much against the in- 
clination of his family at the time, he decided to unite with 
the church there worshiping because he thought that there 
he might he useful. Little did he dream what great inter- 
ests in the future were depending on that decision. 



62 MEMOIR. 

The Broadway Tabernacle was erected in the years 
1835-6, at an expense of upwards of sixty-six thousand 
dollars, exclusive of a portion of the land on which the 
building stands. The chief design of the founders of the 
Tabernacle was the extension of the Free Church plan, 
which at that time had been in successful operation for two 
or three years. A very large building, it was supposed, 
would furnish the means of instruction to the largest num- 
bcr of persons, at the smallest expense of money and minis- 
terial labor. Anotlier design was the accommodation of 
large bodies of Christians on anniversaries and other occa- 
sions. The building is one hundred feet square, with capa- 
cious galleries extending the entire circuit. About twenty- 
five hundred persons can be comfortably seated in it, and 
upwards of three thousand contained Avithin the walls. It 
stands back from Broadway one hundred feet, having an en- 
trance from the street twenty-five feet in width. By this 
arrangement a house of Avorship is placed in the very heart 
of the city, on its principal thoroughfare, and yet removed 
from the noise of the street. 

The Tabernacle was first occupied by the Sixth Free 
Church, which adopted the name of the building. This 
church was mainly Congregational, though the deacons were 
made trustees of the property, and the board, for the sake 
of being better comprehended by the public, was denomi- 
nated a session. This board of seven deacons, chosen an- 
nually, had, together with the pastor, the general oversight 
both of the spiritual and temporal interests of the church ; 
but all ecclesiastical power, in the last resort, was vested 
in the church itself. The first pastor of the Tabernacle 
Church was Rev. Charles G. Finney, Avho, however, resign- 
ed the charge in the spring of 1837, in consequence of ill 
health. He was succeeded by Rev. George Dufiield, who 
officiated as minister without being formally installed pastor 



^9 




ITH.OF r PALME.8 li CO , 98 NASSAU 5TRE t T. N .Y. 



TH 



ia Arvniver sarr We et 



iiACLE. 



THETABERNACLECHURCH 63 

of the church. It was at this time that Mr. Hale united 
with the Tabernacle. 

It soon became apparent that the pecuniary strength of 
the church and congregation was inadequate to the manage- 
ment of so large an establishment ; and in February, 
1838, an arrangement was made by which the Free Church, 
then worshiping on the corner of Dey and "Washington 
streets, united with the Tabernacle Church. The Dey- 
street brethren insisted, as a condition of the union, that 
the united church should be Presbyterian ; and this was 
assented to, with the proviso, that such principles of the 
Congregational order should be ingrafted " as should bo ap- 
proved by the united churches." The Dey-street Church 
brought with them their pastor. Rev. Mr. HelfFenstein ; but 
both he and Mr. Duffield not long after retired, and in the 
autumn of 1838 Rev. Joel Parker became the pastor of the 
church. At the same time the Free Church plan was 
abandoned in part, and the letting of pews substituted. 
The church was harmonious and prosperous for some months 
after Mr. Parker's settlement, and until some disciplinary 
movements on the part of the session produced dissatis- 
faction. 

As this case was one of great notoriety at the time, and led 
to important changes in the Tabernacle Church and property, 
tlie leading facts connected with it should have a place in this 
narrative.* An anti-slavery society was about to be formed 
in tiie Tabernacle Church. The session being opposed to the 
movement, cautioned the church against it. This produced 

* A regard for persons now living who were engaged in this con- 
troversy would lead me to avoid any allusion to it, were it not neces- 
sary for the proper vindication of Mr. Hale's character and con- 
duct that the facts should be stated. I have omitted all personalities, 
and have given only a statement of facts from the best means of in- 
formation at my command. It would not be strange if the recollections 
of the opponents of Mr. Hale should on some points be at variance 
with the memoranda which he made at the time. 



64 MEMOIR. 

much excitement among the friends of the society, one of 
whom, in particular, Mr. Lcnvis Tappan, then a member of 
the church, pubhcly denounced the course of the session as 
arbitrary, and insisted upon the right of forming such a 
society. At h^ngth JNIr. Tappan was cited before the ses- 
sion as a disturber of the peace of the church, and a slan- 
derer of its officers ; but without being tried on the original 
charges, he was condonHied for contumacy, and suspended 
from church privileges. From this sentence he appealed to 
the higher judicatories of the Presbyterian Church, and tho 
decision of the session was finally reversed by the General 
Assembly. One great point in controversy was the right 
of Mr. Tappan to employ a reporter to attend on his trial 
before the session, and take notes of whatever should trans- 
pire. This right the session denied. 

Mr. Hale, with his ardent love of liberty of thought and 
speech, and above all, liberty of Christian action, and with 
some personal experience of ecclesiastical dictation, could 
not remain an indiiVerent speetator of such an affair. He 
had no sympathy with Mr. Tappan's anti-slavery ophiions 
or measures, and was not then on very friendly terms with 
Mr. Tappan himself. But he felt that great principles 
were involved in the trial, and that Mr. Tappan was wrong- 
ed and oppressed by the session. After expostulating with 
the elders in vain, he availed himself of the provision in tho 
articles of agreement between the united churches for oc- 
casional meetings of the whole church for business, and had 
a church meeting called by public notice " for the prayer- 
ful consideration of a case of discipline." At this meeting, 
held January "21, 1880, he introduced the reporter for tho 
Journal of Commerce to take notes of the discussion. This 
was objected to by several, partly as a novelty, and partly 
because it was inexpedient to give publicity to church trans- 
actions. To the objection, that if reporters were allowed to 
attend church meetings, the ' penny papers' might have them 



CASK () !•' L 10 W IS r A P P A N . 



66 



always present, Mr. Hale replied, " I should be happy if all 
the penny papers in the city would fill their sheets with re- 
ports of our prayer-meetings at all times. I fear they 
Avould find the matter too good for their purposes. Instead 
of telling that our prayer-meetings are private, and report- 
ers cannot be admitted to them, I should be glad if the whole 
city were here on such occasions — and if we could not ac- 
commodate them all, I should be glad to have all we say and 
do reported everywhere through the newspapers." 

By a vote of the churcli, the reporter was allowed to re- 
main, and the debates of the evening were thus preserved. 
These were afterwa-rds published by Mr. Ilalc, on a loose 
sheet, under the title of "'Facts and Reasonings," which 
was very widely scattered. 

The following is the report of the main speech of Mr. 
Hale at that meeting. It develops many important princi- 
ples of church government : 

Mr. II.vi.e fhoii addressed tlie meeting as follows : 

Mr. MoDEiiATOR, — I ask the kind attention of my brethren and 
sisters to tlie rcnnaiks I am about to make. It was for tlic pur- 
pose of making tliese remarks before them that 1 sought tliis 
meeting. We are in difliculty, and the best way to extricate our- 
selves appeared to me to be to hold a free discussion on tlie 
subject, to Hnd out if possil)le tlio causes of our troubk;, and if 
possil)le iix on some principles wliicli will counternct these causes, 
and so guide us to harmony, and maintain that harmony horciaf- 
ter. I am happy to see so large ;m assembly of my l)rethr(ni, 
for the matt(!rs in hand concern us all, and T have been accustom- 
ed to put confidence in the Avliole church for the manag(\mcnt of 
its adairs in times of diiliculty, over and above any pitrt or small 
proportion of the members. When all are asscml)led in a spirit 
of benevolence, wc seek to promote the common good by tin; 
adoption of principles, which, in their bearing, are e(pial upon 
:ill ; but when a portion of the commimity act in tlie name of the 
whole, it is often the case that the advantage of tlu; few is too 
much consulted. Towards this church, in })articular, my con- 
fidence has been constantly increasing ever since f IkkI the privi- 
lege of becoming one of its members. 1 have found in all its 
course an earnest desire to do right, guided by a liberal intelli- 



66 MEMOIR. 

gence. Especially have recent events put the wisdom and kind- 
ness of its members to a severe test. We have passed through 
events which might have shaken any church. We have within 
a short space, upon prudential considerations, dismissed two pas- 
tors, to one or other, or both of whom, we were all warmly at- 
tached. When I saw my brethren come together affectionately, 
and sacrifice their individual feelings of attachment to those pas- 
tors, on the altar of the common good, I said within myself, " this 
church is worthy of my confidence, it may always be trusted." 
We are called upon now again, to sacrifice all personal considera- 
tion for our common good, and the honor of our common Lord. 
We are again in difficulty. Our minds are full of anxiety. 
When I contrast our present condition with the peace and har- 
mony and joy which prevailed so recently, and which had been 
procured by our united action, I am overwhelmed Avith the con- 
trast, and I resolve that if God will deliver us again, and bring us 
back to those heavenly places, I will try to be a better man than 
I have ever been. Such is the feeling, as I trust, which pervades 
the whole church. 

It is painful to proceed to discuss in detail the causes of our 
unhappiness ; but it is a necessary process, and I shall endeavor 
to go through it, speaking with the kindness and the frankness 
with which a friend and a brother ought to speak. 

Our peace was first interrupted by the commencement of an 
anti-slavery society, to be formed in the Broadway Tabernacle 
Church. I do not impute moral blame to the brethren who were 
engaged in this, nor do I question their abstract right to do what 
they did : still I think it was an error to introduce the subject in this 
form, and an error exceedingly dangerous to our peace. This is 
the Broadway Tabernacle Church of Jesus Christ, not of Anti- 
Slavery ; and it must always be dangerous for a church as such 
to depart from the single design of its formation. We are asso- 
ciated as a church, only for the worship of God, and an atten- 
dance on the ordinances he has established. There may be in 
our number some of all the various parties which divide our 
country. We have Whigs and Van Buren men, tariff and free 
trade men, abolitionists, and colonizationists. We differ about all 
these things and many more, yet there is one thing about which 
we all agree, and on this we unite. This is the corner-stone of 
our fabric, and while we adhere to it alone, we shall be likely to 
remain harmonious. In maintaining this unity of purpose, we 
sacrifice nothing of our opinions or our rights with regard to other 
topics. We are pledged to each other as a band of Christians, 
and whoever introduces any thing else into our association, however 
good or honorable it may be, perverts the ends of the association. 
This he ought not to do, and his covenant with the church does 



SPEECHOFMR.HALE. 67 

in my judgment fairly preclude him from doing it. The same 
principle applies to all associations, and is necessary for their 
peace. If this were a society for literary improvement, there 
would be no doubt many other good things to wliich it might 
turn its attention, but if a member should attempt to appropriate 
the society to other purposes, he would introduce discord, and to 
that extent violate the spirit of his pledge given on entrance. I 
wish particularly to impress it on the minds of my brethren, that 
we are associated for one purpose and no other ; and this truth 
must be far more widely considered than it has been, if the 
churches of our country are to have rest. Those things are no 
exceptions to this rule which are thought by their especial advo- 
cates to grow out of the Gospel, or to be essential adjuncts with 
it, or even forerunners of it. If they are not in the pattern as 
shaped by the Master, they have no business here. However 
good they may be, and however excellent their machinery, if it is 
thrust into the workings of the church, our machinery will be in- 
terrupted in its peaceful movements, or stopped entirely or broken 
to pieces. I hope with these views that our brethren who pro- 
posed the formation of the anti-slavery society will see the 
propriety of withdrawing it from this church, to set it up in 
greater strength, if they can, elsewhere, but in independence of 
this chui'ch. 

I now turn to the other side, and it is with much pain that I 
feel myself obliged to animadvert on the conduct of brethren with 
whom I have acted in the closest intimacy, and whom I have 
been accustomed to love and respect. I allude to the measures 
of the session. It may be said perhaps, that what has been 
done by the session is not within the cognizance of the church, 
and not our business coUectivelj', and that if wrong has been 
done, the party wi'onged has the right of appeal to another judi- 
catory, where every thing will be corrected. But in my judg- 
ment it is not only our right, but our indispensable duty, to look 
into the treatment which every brother receives at the hands of 
the session. We have covenanted with each other, not with the 
session. You all stand pledged to me and I to you, that we will not 
see each other wronged, but will defend and watch over and pro- 
tect each other. Under such a pledge, if I stand by and see my 
brother wronged, without interfering for his deliverance, my bro- 
ther's wrongs will be required of me as a tacit accessory by his 
God. When we stood before the altar, we made a covenant with 
each other and with God, the keeping of which we cannot dele- 
gate to the hands of others. We must see to it for ourselves, 
that the covenant is fulilled. 

On Sabbath morning the 16th of December last, after listen- 
ing to a sweet discourse from our pastor, and when our feelings 



68 MEMOIR. 

were in as hfippy a state almost as is consistent with earth, the 
members of the church were requested to remain after the con- 
gregation liad dispersed. On incjuiring what was the subject to 
be brought before us, of an elder who sat by my side, I was told 
that the session had prepared a paper which they wished to 
read relative to the proposed anti-slavery society. I perceived 
at once that we were about to be plunged into a sea of trouble, 
and I well nigh resolved' to step forward before the paper was 
read, and beg the church to retire, and save themselves from 
incalculable miscliief. 

But it required more courage to act thus in the face of my 
superiors, than at the moment I was able to muster. The ad- 
monitory letter of the elders was read, and I need not describe 
the instant and dreadful change which it produced in our feel- 
ings and our pi-ospects. Tlie sad excitement which immediately 
followed is fresh in the recollection of us all. There was no ne- 
cessity for creating all this evil, on the part of the session. The 
circumstances required no such advice. The anti-slavery society 
had not been started with hostile intentions against the peace of 
the church. No such thing was suspected of more than a very 
small number ; and if it had existed (which is wholly denied), it 
could not have been carried out, for there was too much good 
sense and good feeling among the members of the church, that 
such a design should have been in the least degree dangerous. 
I admit that the session had the abstract right to give advice, so 
have Ave all the same right ; and others also have the same right 
to take or reject the advice. But the session were bound to 
think wisely and generously, and coolly, before they gave advice, 
which it was easy to see beforehand, would produce great com- 
motion. Tlie result of that Sabbath noon's advice, I thought 
then, would convince the session, that the advice I had previ- 
ously given them, to let the anti-slavery society alone, would be 
seen to be judicious; but to my great regret I learned a day or 
two after, that the session had made another plunge, and cited 
Mr. Tappan to appear before tliem, to answer to charges which 
they would prefer. I thought it my duty to expostulate with the 
session on the course they were pursuing, and with the deep grief 
which I felt, to beseech them in the name of our peace, our use- 
fulness, and the influence of the Gospel, by every thing dear to 
us as a Christian church, to desist from the perilous com'se in 
Avhich they had started. It did seem to me that the path of duty 
was so plain, that no way-faring man had need to make any mis- 
take. IBut my expostulations were on the whole set aside, as 
were all the calls of peace and usefulness, and a bill of indict- 
ment was found against our brother Tappan, and his trial com- 
menced. I do not pi-opose going into the investigation of the 



SPEECH OFMR. HALE. 69 

cliarges. The trial of them will probably go on elsewhere. But 
of the manner of the proceedings on tlie part of the session, I 
will speak and speak fully, for that it is, which has brought the 
saddest afilictions upon us. 

Christian discipline ought to be exercised with the greatest 
kindness. Never for purposes of party, or to gratify personal 
feelings, but for the two ends alone of the honor of religion, and 
the especial benefit of the brother accused. Church discipline 
is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ, and is in fact a part of 
His own system of means to bring His people to Himself. It 
should certainly be exercised in His spirit, and with all that gene- 
rous compassion which He exercises always towards us all. 
Every thing should be done and construed in kindness and liber- 
ality. At least should there be as much lenity exhibited as is 
shown in the criminal courts of civil society, towards accused 
persons brought before them. But I am sorry to be compelled 
to the belief, that a very different course from all this was pur- 
sued by the session. 

The session have not thought it best to lay before us any 
statement of their doings, and so in commenting upon them I am 
compelled to go partly upon what I know from my own observa- 
tion — and partly upon such hearsay testimony as I can rely upon. 

When the trial of Mr. Tappan came on, the session, not con- 
fining themselves to the bill of charges of which the accused had 
been notified, selected various expressions of his, uttered on the 
trial, and directed them to be entered -on the record, as evidences 
of his litigious disposition. 

[After several interruptions and explanations :] 

Mr. Hale continued — In a criminal court an accused person 
would, under such circumstances, have been allowed to say, that 
he did not mean what the expression implied to whicli exception 
had been taken, or to express himself in so aggravated a manner. 
And the hberty to make sucli explanation would not be denied 
him in any criminal court in this country. In no such court would 
such illiberality be practiced, especially as, in this case, the record 
was the only thing which could appear before the higher judi- 
catory. [Here Mr. Hale was again interrupted.] 

In all courts where civil liberty is protected, if a man on trial 
is contumacious to the court, that is one thing ; but if he says 
things which show a murderous disposition, they are never put 
on record, to prove that he committed murder. The whole trial 
and the penalty relate to wliat took place before the trial com- 
menced. Misconduct at the trial is never put on record as a 
proof of the crime, nor punished as part of it. If a person ma- 
nifest disrespect or contempt to the court, he may be sent to jail 
until he learns better. But what our brother said without being 



70 MEMOIR. 

contumacious, was written down as evidence of his litigiousness. 
And this was done to aggravate his guilt. 

I never knew an instance, nor was there ever one, in any fairly 
conducted trial, in which a person on trial was refused the privi- 
lege of explaining what he had said. The principle is essential, not 
to fairness merely, but to truth, for very often a sentence, or part 
of a sentence, taken by itself, and without explanation, will 
convey an idea directly contrary to the idea in the mind of the 
speaker, and nothing can be more at war with simple truth, than 
the harsh refusal to allow an accused person the liberty to ex- 
plain, that what he has said was spoken imder a misapprehen- 
sion, in his oivn tnind, of the real state of the case, or tliat what 
he said was not the full expression of his meaning, but ix'ferred 
to something he had said before, or intended to say afterwards, 
and Avhich other expressions were essential to the right under- 
standing of his meaning. 

Every explanation ought to have been received. In this case 
it was of essential importance from the fiict that the record of 
the session was to be the whole case before the Presbytery.* 

Another thing. Every member of the church, who could pos- 
sibly be a witness for the accused, was excluded from the trial. 
Even the members who had been summoned were excluded. 

I have it oflicially that the Moderator of the session did ex- 
clude the members of the church who were to be witnesses from 
being present at the trial, and he also excluded members who 
had not been summoned, as witnesses, upon the ground that pos- 
sibly they might aftervHirds be summoned. The " book of dis- 
cipline" shows gi'eat ignorance of piinciples in the rule it con- 
tains on this point, but it does not authorize the course adopted 
by tlic session. I say by the session, for orders given by the 
presiding judge of a court are given by the court. No such 
practice is allowed in civil or criminal courts, except in cases 
where there is supposed to exist a conspiracy among the wit- 
nesses either with or against the accused. The rule of the ses- 
sion carries on its face this unworthy charge against the mem- 
bers of this church, for certainly if the members who were sum- 

* That this matter may be definitely understood I will instance an ex- 
ample. Mr. Tappan said on tlio first evening of the trial, tliat it would 
take until Marcli to finish it. This expression the session directed the 
clerk to record, as evidence of a litigious disposition. AVhen the session 
came to adjourn they adjourned until the next evening. On this, Mr. 
Tappan requested that it should be entered, that when he said it would 
take to March to get tlirough Avith the trial, it was under the impres- 
sion that the session would only sit one evening in a week as they had 
beeu accustomed to do ; but if they should adjourn IVom evening to 
evening, a much shorter time would probably be required. This ex- 
planation the session refused to record. 



SPEECH OF MR. HALE. 



ri 



moned could be relied upon to speak the truth, under all circum- 
stances, there was no meaning in the order which excluded them 
from licaring the testimony of each other and listening to the 
trial. The principle adopted by the session of excluding those 
who might be witnesses, and requiring as they did the accused 
to enroll each particular brother or sister present as a witness at 
that time, or lose his right to do so afterwards, was harsh and 
rigorous, and a violation of the rights, both of the accused and 
the members of the church. The principle is ruinous to liberty, 
for it would be very easy to make it a pretense upon which all 
spectators shoidd be excluded from court. 

It is a matter of no dispute that our brother was refused the 
privilege of having a reporter to assist him in taking down a 
complete record of all that was said and done in the process of 
the trial. Every other person present possessed tlie right of 
making a full report, but to tlie individual on trial it was denied. 
I need not prove, to persons accustomed to notice the workings 
of such matters, that a court which should refuse to allow a full 
report of its proceedings to be made by impartial hands would 
not be very likely to make a full and fair report itself. Are not 
all the courts of this countrj^, both civil and criminal, open to 
reporters ? Is there any one of them, where a party interested, 
or a party uninterested, would be prevented from taking notes of 
all that transpired ? Not one. It is an essential right in the 
protection of justice and fair dealing, and any civil or criminal 
judge who should infringe it would cover himself with the dark- 
est suspicions, and be driven from his seat. The right is not 
less clear, nor less important, in regard to ecclesiastical courts. 
Their penalties, in a great measure, relate to reputation with the 
whole church and the world at large. It is therefore of peculiar 
importance, that the individual whose reputation is" at stake 
should be able to sliow to all persons what was the evidence, 
and what were all the proceedings in the case. I should have 
felt alarmed, as our brotlier did, under that rule, and afraid to go 
on with the trial. I could not have felt secure in trusting to the 
records of a court, who had passed such an order. If I had 
been in the place of our brother, I should not only have felt at 
liberty to do as he did, but I should have felt compelled to do it 
as a matter of duty. If he had submitted to the order, he would 
not merely have given up his own rights, but mj^ rights and 
yours. He would have admitted a principle which would have 
rendered us all insecure. 

In demanding this vital right, and demanding it as a right, ho 
did what every man who knows the worth of liberty, and the 
blood it has cost, would and ought to do. But why was this re- 
fusal to permit every thing to be taken down, and, if the ac« 



72 MEMOIR. 

cused pleased, reported to the world ? Was any thing likely to 
occur which would not bear the light ? Kindness and generosity 
do not spoil in the daylight, but become more fragrant, and 
even simple justice will stand the most intense rays of the sun, 
without losing its beauty. 

If the accused had been guilty of the crimes laid to his charge, 
and that had been proved by the testimony, would the convicted 
man have desired to publish the proofs of his guilt ? And if he 
had, would the court have any thing to fear from it, either for 
themselves, or this church, or the honor of religion ? There 
could have been no good and honest reason for excludino: the re-i 
porter. God himself has His reporter. In the book of His re- 
membrance are written down all His dealings with each one of us, 
during our long and merciful trial, and He does it in order that at 
the last great day the record may be reported and published to 
the universe, to the utter confusion of all incorrigible criminals, 
and the vindication of God's rectitude, so that all a^ood beina's 
shall be surely convinced that His judgments are righteous, and 
so take part with Him. In the same manner will every tribunal 
act, whose measures are those of intelligence and rectitude. 

A contrary course at once excites suspicion, and has in this 
case done dishonor to this church and our religion. These are 
my opinions of this matter of the reporter ; and I am sure 
that unless we act upon them, we shall never be able to satisfy 
our own consciences, or make the world believe that what is done 
here is honest and of good report. 

Under the circumstances which I have described, the session 
passed sentence against our brother, of suspension from the com- 
munion for contumacy. 

They wronged him once, and because he, as an American 
Christian was bound to do, stood by his right, they wronged him 
again, and consummated the wrong hy intlicting upon him the 
heaviest penalty within their power. This contumacy, be it re- 
membered, was not against Him who spreads our communion- 
table with the emblem of His sufferings in our behalf, but against 
the session — that was all. I do not see what connection there 
was between the crime, if it had been one, and the punishment 
which was inflicted on account of it. I will only add, on this 
point, that the book of discipline authorizes no such sentence as 
this for contumacy. 

As another wrong in this case, I have to state that notwith- 
standing the appeal which our brother has taken to a higher tri- 
bunal, the penalty of the session has been inflicted in the mean 
time to its fullest extent. No such thing was ever done in any 
coui't, where there was the least pretense of justice. An appeal 
is a continuation of the trial. The decision has not been reached, 



SPEECHOFMR. HALE. 73 

and the " question of guilt or innocence" has not been settled 
until the ultimate decision has been obtained. I know very well 
that the book of discipline authorizes this, and it shows the ex- 
treme ignorance on the part of the men who made it, of the 
simplest elements of right and the commonest proceedings of 
courts. You might as well stop any where else and inflict a 
penalty as at the result in the first court. The plan of this pro- 
ceeding is to punish first and try the accused afterwards, and find 
out whether he ought to be punished. I have never known of 
more than one case in a criminal court analagous to this. That 
was the case of two Indians who were tried in Georgia, under an 
iniquitous law of that State for driving off the rightful owners of 
the soil. Under this law the two Indians were found guilty, and the 
punishment was death. Their counsel appealed to the Supreme 
Coui't of the United States, as they had a right to do, and if 
there had been justice in Georgia, the Indians would have been 
safe. But the Georgia court said, you may appeal as much as 
you please, but in the mean time we shall hang you. And so 
they did, and filled the whole land with abhorrence of the mur- 
derous deed. This to be sure is not a hanging matter, but it is 
a suspension of character. The news goes forth to the world 
that our brother is excommunicated, and yet the trial is pending, 
which I am sure will in the end reverse the sentence of the ses- 
sion. • In the mean time he is driven from the communion as if he 
had been convicted, and his reputation suffers. After months, 
and perhaps years, the unjust sentence will, I have no doubt, be 
reversed, but the wrong which has been done can never be fully 
redressed. This certainly is great injustice. 

Still more, and worst of all, I know that at least one of the 
judges had made up his mind and determined to convict the ac- 
cused, before the trial commenced, for he told me that something 
must be done to break down the influence of Mr. Tappan. This 
was said to me, and repeated, without any charge of confidence 
being imposed upon me. Surely such a judge, or a court with 
such a judge upon its bench, was not fit to try any man. Such 
an individual would not have been allowed to sit upon the trial 
even of Coleman, who cut the throat of his wife at noon-day, 
and before a throng of witnesses. Any one who had declared 
beforehand that (!oleman ought to be hanged would have been 
disqualified from sitting on the trial. Our rights are entirely in- 
secure, if we may be called before men and tried by men who 
have, beforehand, determined that we must be broken down. I 
know that these statements produce painful emotions in the minds 
of many who hear me, as they do in my own. But it is indis- 
pensable that the matter should be thoroughly investigated. I 
respect my brethren who compose the session, and I am not dis- 
4 



74 MEMOIR. 

posed to charge them with having done all these wronjD;s inten- 
tionally. But however honest they may be, I cannot feel at all 
secure, while the tribunal to which I may myself be responsible, 
so violates the principles which are the essential safeguards of ray 
rights. I do not consider my reputation safe in their hands, and 
I know that other brethren feel the same alarm. We cannot set- 
tle down in peace, until we are eftectually secured against such 
dangers. My deliberate opinion is, that if the session had re- 
solved at the outset to do every thing wrong, they could not have 
accomplished that purpose more completely. 

My desire and the object of the remarks I have made and 
shall make, is, if possible, to remove these dangers, and fix our 
relationship on such principles as will make us safe, and secure to 
us permanent peace. And to help us in our judgment allow me 
to point out the radical error of the session, which has led them 
into all these other errors. It was the want of confidence in' the 
members of the church. The session feared that the ingenuity 
of Mr. Tappan would be sufficient to change our opinions, and 
bring us to act in opposition to them and our pastor. In this 
opinion they were probably very sincere ; but unless I entirely 
overrate the intelligence of my brethren, the session were utterly 
mistaken in their low opinion of us. I know I am right about 
this, and it was entirely under the influence of fears growing out 
of this eiTor that this prosecution was commenced. I combatted 
this error with the members of the session with all the power I 
possessed, at the commencement of this unhappy business. I 
assured them that they might rely on the wisdom, intelligence 
and piety of the church. If they had felt the confidence in us 
which they had reason to feel, this prosecution would never have 
been commenced. But they supposed us liable to be led astray 
— that there was a dangerous man among us, and that unless he 
were put down, we should all be corrupted by his influence, and 
brought over to wrong-doing. There are many men who can 
never comprehend how a community should live together in peace 
without being governed. A Frenchman who lands on our shores 
and sees no f/ens cCarmcs, thinks there is no government, and is 
afraid he shall be killed. He does not understand the workings 
of a system of liberty, where the laws being made by the people, 
they are for the good of the people, and all the people are en- 
gaged for their support. So it was with the session. They 
could not believe in the stabilitj^ of our ungoverned peace. This 
brought the pressure of their power upon it for its preser- 
vation and crushed it to pieces. We know that mere sincerity 
in rulers is no guarantee that they will govern Avell. They must 
add to sincerity, intelligence, liberality and purity from prejudice. 
We had this truth strongly exhibited the other day in a sermon. 



SPEECHOFMR. HALE. 75 

in which our pastor illustrated the guilt of prejudiced sincerity 
by supposing the case of an honest but prejudiced jury, sitting 
upon the trial of a fellow-being for his life, and he exhibited the 
climax of the illustration by the pungent inquiry, " who does not 
see that there was murder in that sincerity ?" So giving our ses- 
sion all the credit for honesty which any one may claim for them ; 
yet while they act under the prejudice which fills their minds 
respecting the real character of this church, while they believe 
us incapable of taking care of ourselves, there will ever be dis- 
order and insecurity and oppression in their sincerity. Let them 
take a right view of our character, and then every brother and 
sister seems a police officer for the protection of the peace and 
order of the church. The men who have kindled the fires of 
persecution in past ages of the church were, many of them, pos- 
sessed of tliis prejudiced honesty, and with many the prejudice 
was precisely the same prejudice wliich has led our session 
astray. Paul says he was honest in persecuting the church be- 
fore his conversion, and still he confesses tliat for the exercise of 
this honesty he was unworthy to be called a disciple. 

1, sir, cannot afford to bear the loss which must be sustained 
under such an administration of our affairs. I cannot afford to 
have the peace of tlie church thus destroyed. I cannot afford 
to have my pastor brought into the circumstances of danger to 
his inffuence, nay, of great and certain loss, which tliis state of 
things necessarily brings with it. 1 have s(Km a pastor, young, 
and standing in the midst of his flock in all the loveliness of mutual 
confidence, with no other rule over them, and desiring none, but 
that which was secured by his pious and affectionate care for 
their souls. I have seen such a man, startled by some leaf of 
opposition, begin to put himself in an attitude of caution, and to 
guard against popular excitement, and thus assume a position an- 
tagonist to his chiu'ch, and I have seen him follow out his fears 
in the curtailment of their influence until he had robbed them of 
all their fianchise in the election of their own officers, shut them 
out from th(! liberty of meeting to discuss their common interests, 
and well nigh taken from them the liberty of speech even in their 
social religious meetings. We cannot afford to have the active love 
and youthful vigor of the Tabernacle Church fall into such decre- 
pitude, nor to have any part of so deadly a process pass upon 
us, and I will now submit three short resolutions, which I think 
will be an effectual bar to such a process, and will go far to 
secui-e our peace and prosperity hereafter. But first allow me 
to read sundry rules which were prepared by the session, and 
adopted by the church on a Sabbath morning, some time last 
summer, as I understand, for I was not present at the time, nor 



76 MEMOIR. 

was any other brother present who would be expected to take 
an active part in framing the proposed modifications. The paper 
is as follows : 

1st That God alone is Lord of tho conscience, and hath left it free from 
the doctrines and commandments of men, which arc in any thing con- 
trary to his word, or bind it in matters of faith or worship— Ihercfore, 
we consider the right of private judgment in all matters that respect re- 
ligion as universal and unalienable. , , . ,. , „ , - 

2d That the Bible is tho supreme and only binding code of laws for 
the government of the Churcli— so that in all matters of government 
and discipline the Church is bound to follow the rules of Christ, and no 
obligation can exist to do and submit to that which violates them. 

3d That each body of Christians meeting in one place, and united by 
love to walk together according to the rules of Christ's house, i,n sub- 
jection to him, is a church deriving from him the right to choose its own 
pastor and church officers, and to discipline its members—but that in 
tho exercise of those rights, churches may agree to act through their 
representatives or elders, chosen out from among themselves lor the 
purpose of promoting the general interest and the enforcement of the 
laws of Christ. And when difficulties may arise in the administration 
of discipline, application may be made for the aid ot'^othcr churches, 
either through their representatives in Council, or in Presbyteries and 
in Synods, &c., agreeable to some plan approved and adopted by them 

for this purpose. . i. ^i -n 

4th That the form of government, and forms of process of the Pres- 
byterian Church of the United States of America, as amended arid rati- 
fied by the General Assembly, in May, 1821, and adopted by the Pres- 
bvtcrics, meet our approbation, and will be submitted to as iar a.s the 
application and enforcement of the same shall not violate any ot the 
rules of Christ's house. , v *, 

6th That in the administration of the discipline of the church by the 
ciders or congregational assembly, who are the representatives of the 
Church, we hold the following to be the legitimate and proper applica- 
tion of Presbyterian government as laid down in that form oi government 
ami book of discipline. Ist-The pastors, elders, ami deacons are to 
be chosen by a majority of the votes of the members of the church, -d— 
That the authority of the session is ministerial or declarative, ana 
should be exercised by them under a sense both ol then-responsibility 
to the Head of the Church, and of the fact that they are the representa- 
tives of the people. 3d-That in all cases of oliense discipline should 
be commcnco.l and proceed on the rule laid down in Matthew xviii. lo— 
18 4th— Tiiat in cases of process against a member ol the church, tho 
meetin- of the session shall be free to the entrance of any of the mem- 
bers of the church, who may wish to hear the testimony and witness 
the proceedings. ,. , ,, , • i 

0th Applicants for admission to sealing ordinances shall be examined 
by the session as to their knowledge and piety, and when npproyed sha 1 
be publicly propounded at least one Sabbath before their uniting with 

^TtV^An ' annual meeting of the church shall be held on the first 
Monday in April, when the session shall make an annual report in re- 
lation to the spiritual interests of the church ; the deacons in relation 
to their trusts, and the trustees in relation to the funds and expenses ol 
the congregation. 



SPEECHOFMR.HALE. YT 

To this I propose to add tlie following as permanent rules : 

Resolved, That the following be added to the permanent rules of the 
Tabernacle Church : 

1. in the discipline of this church no member shall be obliged to 
make his defense before any judicatory other than the session of this 
churcli, and any member tried by the session shall have the right of ap- 
peal to tlie whole body of his brethren assembled in church meeting. 

2. The first cliurch prayer-meeting in each season of the year shall be 
a business meeting, at which any member of the church may introduce 
any proposition which he deems proper, and meetings for business shall 
be held at any otiier time by direction of a majority of the members 
present at any weekly prayer-meeting; but such meetings, other than at 
the commencement of each season, sliall be notified on tlie Sabbath pre- 
ceding their occurrence. The covenant or confession of the churcli or 
its permanent rules may not be changed, except at a meeting specially 
notified for important business. 

8. At the annual meeting in April, a church clerk shall be chosen 
who sliall record all the resolutions and other proceedings of the church 
in a book, which book shall always bo accessible to any member of the 
cluiTch during ordinary business hours. 

I have drawn the first of these resolutions in accordance with 
the principle which I have laid down, that it is the duty of the 
church to see to it, that its discipline is administered according to 
th(^ principles of righteousness and the order of the Gospel. 
Without this rule we are none of us secure, for we are destitute 
of that essential guarantee of liberty, a trial by jury, or in other 
words, a trial by those who are of the same class with tlie accus- 
ed. A member of this church, as the matter now stands, may be 
summoned before a court of Presbyterian elders for trial, and if 
he thinks they do him injustice, he may appeal to more Presby- 
terian elders, and then again to a still higher court, and then, if 
he pleases, to one still higher, but he everywhere finds himself in 
the presence of Pi-esbyterian elders. However many times he 
may be tried, it is alwa3's by a class to which he does not belong. 
The sympathies of each court are with the other courts. The 
accused nowhere finds himself in the hands of the class who 
sympathize with him. Very seldom indeed, under such circum- 
stances, will justice be done. In all governments where there is 
any pretense to liberty, in England, France, and the United 
States, this principle of trial by equals is held to be the very 
corner-stone of justice. In none of these countries would the 
citizens trust tliemsclves in the hands of law judges merely. A 
jury is the palladium of liberty. 

Another inalienable right of American Christians is, that of 
meeting. freely for the discussion of all public measures. I have 
drawn my second resolution in accordance with this right. This 
right has in some churches been studiously abridged, lest the free 
discussions of the members should produce rebellion against the 



78 MEMOIR. 

eldership. Even in this church our young brother, Avho is both 
an elder and a trustee, stated to us the other evening, that it was 
incompetent to the church to hold meetings for business unless 
those meetings were called by the trustees, and anotlier member 
affirmed that meetings could not be held unless with the appro- 
bation of the session. Notwithstanding tlicse judicial opinions, 
it is necessary that we should have meetings whether the session 
or trustees will it or not. The house is ours, the business is ours, 
the interests are all ours, tlie session and the trustees are but our 
ministers. What authority liave they to interrupt us, merely be- 
cause we have committed to them the keeping of our key ? Our 
young brother, who thinks we cannot meet without his consent, 
has no more right to prevent us fi'om meeting, than his minister 
to whom he commits the keeping of his store key, has to assume, 
that liberty must be granted by iiim before the owner can enter 
his place of business. 

My third rule provides for the safe keeping of our records, and 
their being kept always accessible to the brethren. All our re- 
cords are now kept, so far as they are kept at all, by the clerk of 
the session. Those records are not within our reach. Although 
the book belongs to the church, and to me as much as to any 
brother of the session, yet I was unable to get access to it for 
the purpose of obtaining the information which I needed for this 
evening. 

I have tried to see the book of records, and could not. It is 
no fault of mine if unfavorable inferences are drawn from the 
fact. 

Now, in conclusion, I ask to have it remembered, that how- 
ever much of mismanagement I have thought it my duty to lay 
at the door of the session, I have in no case charged them with 
improper motives, or an intention to do wrong. I have taken 
care not only to speak of them courteously and kindly, but to 
feel so towards them. I have, at the same time, stated to the 
church frankly my views of the origin and causes of our present 
disturbed and unhappy condition. I have also pointed them to 
the principles which, if adopted, according to my judgment, will 
bring back our peace, and insure its perpetuity. 

[After a protracted and animated discussion, the Moderator 
put the question on the resolutions submitted by Mr. Hale, and 
declared the vote by voices to be in the negative. The result 
was doubted and a count loudly called for, but the Moderator did 
not notice the call, and so the meeting was immediately adjourned.] 

Some months later Mr. Hale addressed to the members 
of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, a second number of 



ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH 



79 



" Facts and Reasonings on Church Government," from 
which the following extracts, explaining and enforcing his 
own views and principles, arc of general interest : 

" To the Members of the Tabernacle Church. 

" Dear Brethren, — On the evening of January 21st, 18.39, I 
had the satisfaction of stating to you my views of the origin and 
causes of the divisions which had so suddenly sprung into existence 
among us, and of offering to you, in the form of resohitions, the 
rules of practice which it seemed to me would restore the peace 
we had so recently possessed. I am still of opinion tliat those 
resohitions if adopted would have produced the good effects I 
promised, and so have saved us from much subsequent mischief. 
Whether they failed for want of a majority of votes at that meet- 
ing will never be certainly known, for the Moderator declared the 
result upon the general answer of ' yes' and ' no,' and silenced the 
calls for a count, by praying. On the first Monday evening of 
April afterwards, our annual business meeting occurred. I have 
annexed a report of the proceedings at that meeting, chiefly for 
the purpose of recording in a definite form the arbitrary claims 
set up by our session, and illustrating their operation. The 
question between us and the session is precisely the same with 
that between Luther and the Pope ; the Puritans and the lliei'ar- 
chy ; the revolutionary patriots' of "70, and Lord North. It is 
the question whether sovereignty is in the people or in their 
rulers ; ' whether nations were made for kings and churches for 
priests, or priests for churches and kings for the people.' The 
doctrine that the people are the sovereigns, and have the right to 
manage their own affairs, is the doctrine of the Gospel, and of 
the most intelligent friends of its advancement. It was the doc- 
trine of the men who landed at Plymouth, and will be maintain- 
ed by theii descendants, I trust, 

"Till the waves of the bay where the Mayflower lay, 
Shall foam uud freeze no more.' 

At our meeting to which I have referred, in January, '39, the 
claim set up by the session was, that we had no right to control 
their proceedings. At the meeting in April, they took the higher 
attitude that we had no right to discuss tliem. I supposed that 
sober reflection must convince all intelligent men, not only of the 
falsehood of this doctrine, but of the folly of attempting to set it 
up, among Christians who had been taught from their infancy to 
abhor it. I waited therefore after the April meeting until the 
particular excitement of the day had subsided, and tlien called 
upon our pastor and several of the elders, in the hope that they 



80 MEMOIR. 

would be ready to take back, or at least to modify and define 
tlieir pretensions in such a manner, that we could live together 
peacefully, and still be a free and active church. My hopes were 
disappointed. * * * * * 

" This is not a question whether one set of officers or another 
shall be in the administration. Nor is it a question between Con- 
gregationalism and Prcsbyterianism. The constitution of Pres- 
bytorianism no more authorizes such absolutism than it authorizes 
the elders to burn us at the stake." * ^- * * " The noise 
and confusion of our April meeting was not made to keep me 
down particularly, but to keep you doAvn, or rather to keep us all 
in a state of subjugation together. It will depend upon the lift- 
ing of our hands, whether Ave are thus subjugated, for whatever 
the eldership may arrogate, they know the fact, that the whole 
control over them is in the members of the church, and cannot 
possibly be taken away. ■ You can do as you like, brethren, but I 
am free to say, that while I live, Avhether in church or state, 
whether in large communities or small, I will always resist such 
claims as are set up by our ciders. Liberty has cost too much 
to be pusillanimously resigned. I love liberty in the churches. 
It is the bond of union and the spring of energy. I love it in 
all my fellow-men. I love it in myself, and I mean to keep it. I 
was born free and I mean to die free. I received liberty, civil 
and religious, from my parents ; I intend to leave it if I can to my 
children. I contributed largely to the state of things which en- 
abled this usurpation to be set iip over us, and I do not intend to 
rest imtil I have fairly and fully thrown on you the responsibiHty 
of maintaining your riglits or giving them up. 

" As we are forbidden the privilege of conferring about our 
affairs Avhen together, I have no alternative but to address you in 
this Avay ; for although I have lost the pi-oper liberty of speech 
when within the walls of the Tabernacle, I have a press in my 
OAvn building which goes by steam, and the elders cannot stop it. 
" Let us reason together then respecting the interests of our be- 
loved church, and the measures of our officers, so far as reasoning 
can be useful, and find out Avhat we ought to do. If you turn 
away from the discussion, you do it at your peril. You all love 
peace, and so do I. But we are enlisted as ' soldiers,' and if our 
Master commands Ave must contend. Ma)iy a soldier has become 
a^trenuous advocate for peace Avhen he Avas afraid of the battle, 
and many a Cliristian has thought himself entitled to the blessing 
Avhich belongs to the ' peace-maker,' who Avill be disappointed 
by getting only the reward of the 'slothful servant.' It is cow- 
ardice and indolence in his bosom Avhich many a man mistakes 
for Christian love of peace. If we really love peace according to 
its inestimable Avorth, Ave shall take care that it is established on 



ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 81 

the eternal basis of truth. There is no peace to the wicked — 
there is no desirable peace in falsehood — there is no peace worth 
having to a slothful or an enslaved church. Righteousness and 
peace must meet and kiss each other, if we are to enjoy the in- 
fluence of either. With the action of such a falsehood as tlie 
session have introduced as the main principle of their relation 
to us, there never can be any peace but the peace of death. The 
great interests of the Tabernacle have been committed to our 
hands. We have solemnly promised to watch over them and 
each other, and woe unto us if we fail to understand our duty ! 

" It would be impossible to follow our officers into an ex- 
amination of all their measures. I shall only touch upon several 
events well attested. The two churches (Tabernacle and Dey- 
street) were united upon the basis of a written covenant adopted 
at a meeting of delegates and afterwards ratified by the churches 
respectively. The fourth article of the covenant is in the follow- 
ing words : ' The two churches to be connected with the Third 
Presbytery of New York, it being understood that such j^rinciples 
of the Congregational order shall be engrafted, as shall be a^')- 
2)roved b>j the united churches. The brethren who now assume to 
rule us say that the condition in italics they never intended to 
comply with. They acknowledge that I, and those who acted 
with me, refused to consummate the union, without this condi- 
tion ; but that the committee who met them said that after all, 
nothing was meant by it. I deny this verbal nullification. The 
story is absurd on its face, though honestly stated, I dare say. 
Our written covenant of union, therefore, though fulfilled on the 
one part, remains broken on the other. I claim of tlie members 
from Dey-street, that the church should be assembled calmly to 
deliberate on tliis covenant. If, on coming together, the church 
prefer to make no modifications, the covenant will, notwithstand- 
ing, have been kept. The stain of unfaithfulness will have been 
wiped away. 

" The administration of the session is but little known to us, 
except in their measures towards Mr. Tappan. There are certain 
jn-ominent points in that matter which demand our consideratic^n. 
Tiie long details have been attended to by Mr. Tappan himself. 
They have been managed by him with a degree of talent, energy 
and good temper which have seldom been equaled. He has tri- 
umplied amply. I rejoice in his triumph, for his sake and the sake 
of religious liberty, and Christian rights everywhere. The con- 
ti'oversy was for pi-inciples, as important for me as for him. Ho 
fought the battle alone, but for us all ; and I thank God that a 
mouth and wisdom were given to him which all his adversaries 
were unable to gainsay or resist. The verdict of the highest 
Presbyterian judicatory has stamped the whole prosecution as 
4* 



82 MEMOIR. 

wrong and oppressive. The opinions and arguments which I 

spread before you on the 21st of January, therefore, have been 

sustained, not <as mere Congregationalism, as you were told, but 

as sound Presbyterianism also. 
******** 

" By the events which have taken place, our session have, ac- 
cording to their own declaration, lost the power of conducting dis- 
cipline, and so we are in fact without this most important preroga- 
tive. Mr. Tappan you will recollect was never tried on the charges 
tabled against hirn, but was ' excluded for contumacy,' he having in- 
sisted on retaining u reporter at the trial, contrary to the order of 
the session. The General Assembly reversed the decision of the 
session ; and then Mr. Tappan demanded to be tried on the 
original charges, alleging that as those charges had been promul- 
gated to the world, it was due to his own reputation that the 
truth in the matter should be judicially ascertained. This de- 
mand was most reasonable ; and as necessary for Mr. I^arker as 
for Mr. Tappan. The session however refused to take up the 
trial, and recorded a set of reasons for the refusal, among which 
was the following : — ' The session are deeply convinced that it is 
beyond their power to attain the ends of salutary discipline in the 
trial, inasnuxch as the General Assembly have not sustained 
them,' and again — ' while therefore the session /«•/ as strongly as 
ever the im2)ortance of investigating these charges, yet they do 
not see any other course which they can wisely adopt, but to dis- 
continue the prosecution, because, painful and humiliating as it is 
to abandon the investigation of grave charges on account of the tur- 
bulence of the person accused,' Ac. ' Painful and humiliating' 
truly. It seems impossible that the members of a court should 
i-ecord their inability thus, without giving up their claims, not 
merely to peculiar and exclusive wis{U)m, but to any competency 
for their otHce. But whatever the session may think of them- 
selves, the chiu-ch is evidently without the power of discipline, 
for although this broken-down court might possibly manage the 
sisters of the church, or the poor brethren, yet if there be a 
' turbulent' spirit among us, a brother who will contend for his 
rights as a giant, then the session mut t again come to the pain- 
ful and humiliating conclusiiin, that such a man is too much for 
them. But how preposterous is the plan upon which our disci- 
pline is conducted, even when successful ! In tlieir annual report 
the session said, if I remember right, that 'four' had been cut 
off. But who they are, whether it is you, or I, or brother B, or 
brother C, nobody knows. They summon a member into the 
secresy of the session-room and there excomnuuiicate him, and 
he cotmts one in the list of subjects ; but the transaction is kept a 
profound secret, and the book on which the record is made no- 



ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 83 

body can see ! Was ever such innocent discipline heard of 
before ? The whole force of church (lis(;ipline so far as penalties 
go, consists in public exposure and condemnation : for let us re- 
member that our relationship to an exscinded brother is not end- 
ed, nor our duties done. The Gospel points out the manner in 
which such persons are to be treated when discipline is right- 
eously administered. Is it true, then, that the session are so irre- 
sponsible to the church as not to be obliged to tell us the names 
of the excommunicated ? Ought a report, so deficient, to be ac- 
cepted? Methinks the tremendous responsibility of exercising 
discipline in Christ's house is sometimes but httle appreciated. 
There is too much reason to believe that in many churches it is 
made an instrument of partisanship, of shutting up opposition 
and of destroying rivals. Often its hottest violence has been ex- 
ercised towards the most conscientious members of the church if 
their regard for their Savior forbade tliem to submit implicitly to 
the chief priests and elders. What can men be thinking of, who 
touch with careless or selfish or angry hands the ark which has 
written upon it, ' whoso shall offend one of these httle ones which 
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hang- 
ed about his neck and he drowned in the depths of the sea.' 

" Let us look now a little at our condition. 'J'he peace we pos- 
sessed immediately after tlie settlement of Mr. Parker, and wliich 
might now have been flowing like a river, is di'ied up, never to 
return, without a great change of management. About sixty 
members of the church, comprising a most important portion of 
its active piety, have left us under deep feelings of injury. Our 
religious conference-meetings are ended. Eighteen months ago 
we conversed freely together in our religious mecjtings, and the 
members of the church were invited to speak often one to ano- 
ther. . Now no voice is heard but that of the pastor, and at in- 
teivals that of an elder, and no opportunity is given for any 
other. The only exception to this is, that three times, if I recol- 
lect right, in nine months, I have felt impelled to say a few words 
myself, thougli during all that time my pastor has not invited me 
to take any part at all, not even to pray on any occasion, though 
he formerly called on me as often at least as on any other brother. 
I have not, so far as 1 know, remitted any courtesy due to him, 
nor done any thing which ought to forfeit tlie esteem of a gene- 
rous mind. Yet it would seem that controversy and personality 
have been brought into all our meetings. Such is our social con- 
dition. The large number of colored persons which once filled a 
whole section of our house, and by their presence testified to the 
kind and paternal character of the church, have withdrawn. 
Their presence was to me a more honorable testimony to our 
Christian character than an equal number of persons would have 



84 MEMOIR. 

been, whose coaches wore drawn up before our door. They have 
been treated sevcrel3^ Our trustees refused them leases of pews, 
except on the condition, that if they allowed a white person to sit 
with them but for once, the lease should be forfeited. Their 
children were disobliged in the Sabbath-school, and their feelings 
in various ways needlessly, and I think ungenerously, wounded. 
Our Sabbath-school has dwindled to a small affair. The few ac- 
cessions to the church must be hardly sufficient to keep our re- 
maining numbers good. And still the kindest counsel which 
those who urc not j)leased can get, is, that they had better go 
away. Not an iota of concession is thought of; nothing but a 
harder and still harder turn of the screws. To sustain this ruin- 
ous usurpation, we are forbidden to express our views to each 
other, even in our annual business-meeting. I have good reason 
for belie\ing that our last annual meeting was conducted on a 
plan previously agreed upon by the pastor and elders. I stood 
on the floor for an hour and a half, contending for our common 
right of speech, aiid during that time, while according to well- 
settJed principles, 1 had the exclusive right to speak, motions 
were made and received by the Moderator, and by him put to 
vote, and the whole business of the evening forced through. It 
is the chief duty of a chairman to preserve order, and maintain 
individual rit/hts, and luifaithfulness and partisan acting in a 
chair is considered by all honorable men, as dishonorable above 
ordinary dishonor." 

After alluding to the financial condition and prospects of 
the church as requiring harmonious action, and making a 
strong appeal to the church to rally and sustain the enter- 
prise, the address proceeds : 

" If you ask me why I do not leave the church as I have been 
so liberally advised to do, ray answer is, tirst, I choose to stay. 
I choose to do so, because I have been here longer than most of 
my brethren wlio wish to get I'id of me, and there is not another 
church to wliich I wish to go. Because I love the Tabernacle 
Church, its choir, its services. The example of good men 
teaches me to staj' where I am, and seek to correct what is wrong. 
I have no doubt that my opinions and feelings substantially 
agree with those of the gi-eat mass of the church, except when a 
contrary feeling has been induced by misapprehension. I know 
you are tlie friends of liberty. No church is moie democratic 
than the Tabernacle. I ha\-e never yet proposed that the church 
should become Congregational in its organization, nor do I sup- 
pose that my brethren and sisters have the strong opinions which 



ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 85 

I have on that subject, or that many of them have troubled 
tlicmselvos to study the difTcrcuce between Congregationalism 
and Presbyterianism. Yet I know, that generally you believe in 
the right and the capacity of tlie people to govern themselves in 
accordance with the earliest lessons of infancy throughout our 
country. If you do, you are Congregationalists, whatever you 
may call yourselves. At any rate, I cannot doubt that you will 
retain the liberty of thought, speech and action, committed to your 
hands. If you ask me the motive which stimulated me to so 
much labor in opposition to the policy of the session, I answer, 
it is not that I want their offices, for they were offered to me and 
urged upon me at the organization of the united church, but I de- 
clined them. I do not know the office on earth which I desire 
for its personal importance or consequence. I am exceedingly well 
satisfied and happy in all the allotments of Providence. 1 have 
not separated from my former friends of the session and resisted 
their measures, carelesslj^ or for small reasons, or for selfish 
ends. If any Christian Avere to take the responsibility which I 
liave taken without much prayer, severe self-examination, and 
perfect disinterestedness, he would be exceedingly culpable. But 
it has cost the blood of better men than I, and thousands of 
them, to secure my liberty and yours, and cost it in contending 
for just the same principles for which I contend against the ses- 
sion. My blood will not be called for in maintaining these prin- 
ciples, but, if it were, I should feel that the cause was worth the 
sacrifice. 

" Our security in both our civil and political relations depends 
on the maintenance of correct principles. If the constitution be 
good and carefully maintained, the men who administer govern- 
ment can do no great mischief. So ' principles, not men,' is the 
sound truth which all political parties are desirous of inscribing 
on their banners, though to be sure, they generally act upon ex- 
actly the reversal of the motto. The patriots of the revolution 
commenced th;it war for this as a prominent reason, that the 
Parliament of Grreat Britain imposed a duty of a penny a pound 
on tea imported into the colonies. Tliey did so, not to make tea 
cheaper, for the war cost more than all the tea they used during 
the whole course of their lives ; but b(!cause the duty was de- 
manded in violation of a principle, Avliich piinciph; was the essen- 
tial protector of all their property and rights. We hold our pro- 
j)erty securely because it is a well settled principle, that what a 
man buys, and pays for honestly, is his, and no one has a right to 
interfere with his possession of it. The multitude who throng 
Broadway pass unmolested and secure, because it is a well settled 
principle tliat every one shall turn to the right. What if some 
charioteer should get the notion that he was king, and every one 



86 MEMOIR. 

must turn out for Idm, and so should drive pell-mell through 
Broadway ? What cries, what fleeing, what upsetting, what 
ruin would strew his course. If there were to come into your 
house at evening, a man who you knew claimed all your fur- 
niture as his, could you go to rest quietly ? There have come 
into the Tabernacle a set of men who claim that all our rights 
are theirs. Rights worth more than household furniture : the 
right of speech, the right of deliberating together, the right of 
understanding and managing our OAvn affairs. If an individual 
gets the notion that he is a king, we call him crazy. Though 
never so sane on all other subjects, we refuse to trust him, espe- 
cially in any matter touching his derangement ; and we even con- 
sider his delusion so dangerous that his best friends will watch 
him closely, and perhaps confine him in a mad-house, for no one 
can tell what he may do. He may perhaps think it right to cut 
oft" the head of some refractory subject, and that subject of his 
imaginary kingdom may be his wife, or his son, or neighbor. We 
had a most melancholy story in the newspapers lately, of a very 
good man who under some such delusion murdered his wife. 
Our session have imbibed the notion that they are something- 
like little kings in the midst of us, and it renders every one 
around them insecure. Under the influence of this delusion the}'^ 
did attack Mr. Tappan, but he was a strong man and so escaped. 
If we ask them for information, they tell us we are accountable 
to them, not they to us ; and if we ui'ge our right to speak and 
vote, they call it lynch law. They seem to count opposition to 
them a crime, conducted never so courteously. No present 
calm, no seeming or real kindness, can ever satisfy a wise man, 
while he knows the ^^ri/ic/^j/es of those around him are unsound. 

" I cannot think of any privilege which the session acknow- 
ledge as ours on the ground oi 2^rinci2)le and right, which Popery 
does not allow to its votaries. We are denied the right of speech, 
and the right of voting, so as to have our votes really ascertain- 
ed, and of voting at all in fact, for our pastor asserts the right of 
putting an end to church meetings at his own will. I was told, 
to be sure, by my pastor, and some of the elders, that I could 
talk with the members of tlie church individually, but now that 
I have set about it as my only way of conferring with them, it is 
intimated to me that this is a disturbance of the peace of the 
church, for which I am liable to discipline. I am taunted pub- 
licly with inviting the brethren to my house, and meeting them 
elsewhere, for consultation, as if this were not my right. Be- 
cause I oppose measures which seem to me ruinous to the church, 
I am charged with opposing my pastor, and called a ' dema- 
gogue.' Every thing is attempted to be made into a personality. 
The courteous expression of my opinion is called ' vituperation/ 



ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 87 

Is not every thing perverted in this way and all rights denied ? 
I may not address you orally — think you the sRssion would let 
me print this address if they could help it ? The prosecution 
against Mr. Tappan was avowedly ' to put him down,' and it was 
avowed by several of the elders that it was necessary to do so, 
because if something was not done Mr. Tappan would poison the 
minds of the church and 'get a majority.' All this was said 
freely at the time, without any apparent consciousness that it was 
wrong. Why should not I be put down, also ? I am laboring 
for the same end, and hope to accomplish it, and I claim it as 
my right, secured to me as an American Christian, and it is one 
I mean to use as far as duty requires it, however much it may be 
denied, and, when it can be done, trampled on. I ask now what 
right any one of lis possesses, as a member of the Tabernacle 
Church, and with the acknowledgment of the session, but just 
the right to listen and to obey ; and as to the first of these it is just 
as easily taken away as the rest. The last I think the session 
will never deny us. The right to personal liberty and life we 
possess under the guarantees of civil law. If we held them only 
by the guarantee of principles recognized by the Tabernacle 
session, they would stop short of most other ecclesiastical courts 
who have possessed civil power. Thousands of Christians have 
paid the penalty of liberty and life, for having dared to exercise 
the rights which God gave them, in opposition to ecclesiastical . 
usurpation. Our session have gone in the same path until the 
wall of civil protection has stopped them. How much farther 
they would go if they could, it is not of great importance to de- 
termine. In my judgment, no one of us will retain the right to 
oppose their measures but by his oiun strength and GocVs blessing 

on the means within his own power. 
******** 

" In some respects the proper character of a church is illus- 
trated by the quiet, inoffensive, and docile temper of sheep. But 
they should not in all respects resemble sheep. They should 
not allow themselves to be sold as sheep are, nor should they 
with the same heedless confidence follow a leader, lest they fare 
like the flock which was quietly trotting across a covered bridge 
over the Connecticut, when the leader perceiving something omi- 
nous before him, and an open window at his side, leaped out of 
the window — the next followed, and the next, in regular succes- 
sion, and directly the whole flock found themselves floating down 
the cold stream together. Whatever else got wet on that occa- 
sion, I presume the self-complacency of the leader was not at all 
damped. 

" The remedies I have to propose are in substance the same 
which I proposed at the great meeting on the 21st of January, 



8» MEMOIR. 

1839. Not tli.at you should make me king. That would be as 
foolish as to allow any other brother to fill that oflice. Not a re- 
volution, not popular excitement, not Congregationalism necessa- 
rily, nor any of those things which have been held up to terrify you 
into voting your i-ights away and turning your backs on your 
duty. To be sure, I think Presbyterianism in all its distinguishing 
roots and branches bad. Not so much, as it hes in the hook, but 
as it is acted out by those who in its name assume to set its con- 
stitutional restraints aside. But whatever avo may be, let us 
maintain the clear truth, that our house belongs to us, not to the 
trustees, that our spiritual interests and all our affairs are at least 
to be understood and watched over by the whole church, and that 
we have and will ever use the liberty of speech freely, and at 
least claim the right to express our opinions and give our advice. 
To insure this, we want 

" 1st. A church clerk, in whose hands the records of the church 
shall be accessible to each member at all proper times, and a 
church orixiinization, and the means of holdinof church meetino-s, 
without so exceedingly improper a surveillance as asking leave of 
the session or trustees. 

" 2d. A regular succession of business-meetings recurring once in 
three months, for instance, at which any member shall be at 
libert}^ courteously and according to the established rules of 
order, to present his views on any church matter without hinder- 
ance or offense. 

" 3d. The enforcement of the standing rule now in existence, 
which requires each board of officers to make a report at the an- 
nual meeting. These reports should be full, extending to all 
matters wliichliave occurred, especially if interrogations are sus- 
tained by a majority of the church. 

" Tliere is nothing anti-Presbyterian in all this. Farther, it is a 
reform recommended by many Presbyterians, that elders should 
be elected annually. This would be a most desirable and proper 
change. 

" Still farther, we shall never be safe in our rights, according to 
the united voice of all the advocatcis of liberal institutions, until 
we have the trial by jury. It is monstrous that Christians should 
be liable to excommunication by a court which is a jHirig in 
the controversy. It would be a simple thing to let the church 
clerk draw a panel of twelve brethren, whenever so desired 
by any member ai-raigned for discipline, which panel should 
pronounce guilty or not guilty, the session conducting the trial 
as a court and adjudging penalties. No one of us can be mulct- 
ed in any of our criminal courts until twelve men, not law judges, 
but our equals, have pronounced us guilty. Should not a mem- 
ber of the church be treated with as much care as any other 



APPEAL TO THE SESSION. 89 

citizen, and should not church courts be as liberal as the Record- 
er's Court at the halls of justice in Center street ? 

" Adopt these principles and they will make no uproar. If you 
lift your hands it will be done, and instead of confusion they will 
bring us peace. If they had been adopted by the church soon 
after the union, it is my firm belief, that we should now have 
been a united, vigorous and happy church. The reason is that 
these are the principles of everlasting truth, and truth brings 
peace. 
" Brethren of the Session — 

" I have looked over all I have written with great care, and in 
my judgment the statements are quite within the truth. If I 
have fallen into the least error unfavorable to you, I shall be 
ready at all times and with all the means in my power to correct 
it. If there is severity in what I have written, it is not in the 
manner but in the matter, and that 5'^ou made, not I. If religion 
is dishonored by the exposition of your proceedings, that fault is 
yours again, not mine. But I have made up my mind that 
religion has suffered more by covering the faults of its professors 
than from a fair and manly exposure and condemnation of them. 
The iniquity of David was not hidden to save God's honor. You 
and I may have a dreadful account to give for the manner in 
which we have conducted as members of the church, but the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ will not die with us, nor on our account; 
nor will great scandal be fastened upon that, necessarily, because 
it is fastened on you or me. I acknowledge my obhgation to 
treat you with kindness as brethren, and not interrupt or hinder 
you in the proper discharge of your official duties, nor even need- 
lessly to expose the wrongs of your administration. But there is 
nothing in our relationship which elevates you above fair and can- 
did scrutiny, whenever the good of the church requires it. In- 
deed all offices are taken with that consent. Then, cease to talk 
of ' great scandal' being brought on religion by ' Facts and Reas- 
onings,' or ' reports,' truly made, of what you have done. And 
cease to talk so much of 'contumacy' as if it were a mighty sin 
to refuse obedience to your ecclesiastical usurpations. Such con- 
tumacy has been a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian 
religion from its foundation. No people were ever so contuma- 
cious as Christians. The martyrs have all died in it and generally 
for it. When the apostles were imprisoned and beaten for con- 
tumacy, and the High Priest and Council demanded of them, 
* Did we not straitly command you ?' their answer, always man- 
fully given, was ' we ought to obey God rather than man.' 
Jesus Christ uniformly took part with the conscientiously contu- 
macious, and many a martyr has gloried in the loss of all things 
for this cause and in death itself, knowing that the torch of frown- 



90 MEMOIR. 

ing priests and councils would light him to the smiling commen- 
dation of his Savior. In His high court of last resort, the doc- 
trine of ' submission right or wrong' was never recognized. 

" Now let me ask you, what you desire to bring about ? Would 
you transform the Tabernacle Church into a company of unthink- 
ing, servile automatons ? Is that what Presbyterianism demands ? 
I would rather be pastor of a little thinking, scrutinizing and in- 
telHgently affectionate church, in any valley of New England, or 
hold influence there, ' by the divine right of superior piety and 
wisdom,' than to sit on the throne of Rome and be obeyed and 
hated through an empire. God will have none but a willing 
obedience towards his government. When men complain of his 
government, his reply is, 'come let us reason together,' and he 
has appointed a day in which before the assembled universe the 
books shall be opened and he will make his great report. Then 
every mouth shall be stopped, not by rules of order, but by the 
revelation of the righteousness of his judgments. Does Presby- 
terianism elevate you to an irresponsibility above that which 
Jehovah claims ? He does not call popular opinion lynch law. 
Then open your book and put down those who oppose you, as He 
will those who oppose Him, by showing that you, hke Him, have 
been long suffering and slow to anger, and of great kindness, not 
willing that any should be excommunicated, but that all should 
be brought to repentance. Suppose you could succeed in 
establishing the doctrine of absolutism which you have got up ; 
there is no lineal descent of authority here, and my sons will per- 
haps be elders in the next generation, to domineer over yours. 
Is it a speechless obedience to my children which you would 
leave as an inheritance to yours, for the sake of exercising autho- 
rity over me yourselves ? But what have you to gain by putting 
down discussion ? There can be but three possible reasons for 
it. Either your measures are bad, or you have not ability to de- 
fend them, or the church have not intelligence and honesty to ap- 
preciate your defense. Your unwiUingness to have your meas- 
ures discussed will in itself be very apt to create the impres- 
sion beforehand, that your weak point is a consciousness that 
your measures Avill not bear investigation. But whether they 
will or not, do you gain anything by transferring the discussion 
from the leoture-roora to the press ? from free and amicable de- 
bate, where all parties are present, to ex-parte conversations out of 
doors ? I can say sincerely that the perfect success of your 
arbitrary doctrines would bring nothing with it which has the 
least charm for me. To stand up in the church and by good 
reasons persuade it to adopt wise measures, has interest about it, 
but to compel submission to measures good or bad, by violence, 
or trick, or official force, is so out of place among brethren m the 



APPEAL TO THE SESSION. 91 

Church of Christ, that, painful as it is, I had rather be the slave 
than the master. I declare to you, that, from the beginning of 
the controversy, I have never been able to perceive anything de- 
sirable which you could possibly gain by your measures, and cer- 
tainly there is nobody who is less exposed to personal loss from 
your success than myself. On the contrary, I am sure of success 
in m}^ plans. Whether the Tabernacle Church asserts its rights 
or not. Christians elsewhere will be put on their guard. I have 
already seen triumphs of truth enough to teach me, that if it is 
slow it is nevertheless sure. 

" Our real interests in the Tabernacle are all the same, if only 
w^e all had the libe)"ility to understand them right. This fact is 
so very clear to my mind, that I cannot but hope that at some 
day not very distant, we shall all labor together again with a 
better, spirit than ever before. Yet I do not hesitate to say, 
though no man should stand with me, my hand, feeble as it is, 
shall ever be against every man who seeks to rob the church of 
its birthright, liberty of thought, speech and action. My motto 
in religion as well as politics shall be, ' Liberty and union, one 
and inseparable.' 
" Brethren of the Church — 

" Whitefield said of things in his day, ' The Pope has turned 
Presbyterian.' It is easy to find him in all denominations, for 
every man by nature would be a pope if he could. So let us 
not waste our ammunition in long shots against an evil in Italy 
which may be growing up at our own feet. Pardon this long 
address. I could not make it shorter, and it is but little labor for 
you to read it, compai-ed with what it has cost me to write it. 
I shall certainly expect from you this requital. All I have to 
say more is, examine for yourselves. Divest your minds of all 
prejudice and personality. Study your duty to yourselves and 
your Master in Heaven. As intelligent and independent Chris- 
tians, worthy of your high vocation, find out what is right, and 
DO IT." 

Thcvse " Facts and Reasonings" will enable the reader to 
judge how far Mr. Hale was responsible for the controversy 
which distracted the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. His 
conduct in bringing the case of Mr. Tappan and the doings 
of the session before the body of the church was neither 
presumptuous nor disorderly. When the Tabernacle and 
Dey-street churches were united, the right of holding 
church-meetings for business was distinctly reserved, and 
also the privilege of engrafting on the constitution of the 



92 MEMOIR. 

new church such principles of the Congregational order as 
should be opproved by the united churches. Mr. Hale felt 
deeply that the liberty and peace of the church were endan- 
gered by the course of the session towards Mr. Tappan ; he 
saw that the interests of the Tabernacle must greatly suffer 
from a controversy which threatened to agitate the whole 
Presbyterian Church; he was anxious to avert these evils, 
and being convinced that the policy of the session could not 
be justified — as it was not by the General Assembly — he ex- 
postulated with the elders individually and entreated them 
to desist ; when these efforts failed, he brought the matter 
before the church at a meeting duly notified for the prayer- 
ful consideration of the case ; in liis remarks on that occa- 
sion he violated no rule of Christian decorum, but spoke 
calmly and kindly, though with great plaiimess and decision, 
setting forth his views of the causes of existmg difficulties, 
and suggesting a remedy. In all tliis he acted on his own 
responsibility, without consulting with Mr. Tappan or form- 
ing a party in advance. Deeming individual liberty inse- 
cure under such a precedent of discipline as that which the 
session were then establishing, he laid down certain prin- 
ciples in the form of resolutions to guard the church in 
future. This was in accordance with the terms of agree- 
ment between the united churches, and Mr. Hale was al- 
ways of opinion that the majority of the church would have 
sustained his resolutions if the vote had been taken by 
count. 

After this meeting Mr. Hale was looked upon as inimical 
to the session, a disturber of the church, and even a disor- 
ganizer. His own liberty of speech in church-meetings was 
infringed upon by various expedients, and the few reserved 
rights of the church were hurriedly voted away. In this 
state of things there could be no peace. Matters of public 
discussion became matters of personal difference ; brethren 
were alienated by conflicting views of policy. In a contro- 



CHURCH CONTROVERSY. 93 

versy so protracted, and in the end so bitter, it would have 
been strange if Mr. Hale had not erred at times by being 
too violent or too severe. Yet it is plain that he acted from 
a conscientious regard for Christian liberty, and that he 
was mainly in the right. He valued the peace of the church, 
but he valued truth and justice more. He once said to the 
writer, " No man loves peace more than I do, or will make 
more sacrifices to obtain it ; or will fight harder than I when 
duty calls me." 

But during all this controversy, Mr. Hale endeavored to 
maintain a Christian spirit. He was not disposed to find 
fault with his pastor, but on the contrary cordially to sus- 
tain him in every thing which did not involve a sacrifice of 
principle. He felt particularly happy in the settlement of 
Rev. Joel Parker over the Tabernacle Church. In a letter 
to his son, dated October 19, 1838, he says, " We have Mr. 
Parker settled Avith us at the Tabernacle, and I feel very 
happy in his labors. He is a man of very sweet temper, 
and quiet, ardent piety." The serious difierence in which 
he was afterwards involved with a pastor whom he so highly 
esteemed, and whom he regarded as preeminently fitted for 
his station, was exceedingly trying to Mr. Hale. It grew 
out of a conflict of opinion upon vital questions touching the 
rights of individual church-members, the occasion of which 
has been described. That Mr. Hale was desirous of an 
amicable adjustment of the difficulty is apparent from the 
following note, written when he felt aggrieved by the course 
pursued towards himself in the meetings of the church : 

"New York, Oct. 25, 1839. 
" Dear Pastor, 

" The interview I had with you and Dr. B — in your study has 
been a source of great comfort to me, during all the painfulness 
of our subsequent controversy. 

" The affairs of our church have now arrived at a stage which 
makes me desirous of having another conversation with you. 
My object, now, is as frank and friendly as befoi-e. It is first to 



94 MEMOIR. 

remove from your mind the wrong impressions which I think it 
likely are there, respecting my conduct. Secondly, to see if it is 
not possible by mutual generosity to agree on some plan which 
may effectually heal the divisions of the Tabernacle Church. 
And thirdly, I am obliged to say that after mature deliberation, 
and as much charity as I am able to exercise, I cannot view 
several of your acts otherwise than as trespasses against me 
of which I ought to tell you, in the hope that my opinions, if 
erroneous, may be set right, and if not that you may be persuad- 
ed and gained to correct views. 

" I pray you, sir, pardon the frankness of this letter, and attri- 
bute it to the feelings of a faithful brother towards his pastor, 
who, althouofh, in some meas\u-e alienated, has still left a strontj 
desire that the cordiality which existed when our relationship 
was formed may, if possible, be restored and perpetuated. I 
have adopted this method of laying my proposal before you, that 
you may the more freely deliberate upon it ; and may the Holy 
Spirit teach us both our need of His help, and prepare us for His 
service in the Tabernacle Church, or wherever else He may assign 
us our place. 

" Your faithful brother, 

"DAVID HALE." 

The following extracts from letters addressed to his son, 
pending the controversy, will further illustrate the spirit by 
which Mr. Hale was actuated, and the principles for which 
he contended : 

" We have very good preaching at the Tabernacle, and in re- 
ligious privileges are very happy, though I am having no small 
controversy Avith our pastor and elders, in consequence of their 
ultra-Presbyterian measures, which have been quite tyrannical. I 
hope you will be an advocate everywhere of self-government on 
the part of the people, of democracy, of Congregationalism, and 
the government of the people everywhere in church and state. 
Rich men will oppress, and a love of power and domination 
is too deeply iixed in us to be extirpated entirely by all the 
grace we get in this world. As you say, God has given all His 
creatures the means of happiness, for all have the means of 
keeping His commandments. 

" I trust the whole matter will turn out for the furtherance of 
the Gospel. It is a glorious thing to have the Spirit of Jesus 
Christ, holy, harmless and separated from sinners. I hope all 
that we learn of the weakness and wickedness of men will serve, 
not to make us misanthropic nor discontented, but to turn us 



RIGHTS OF THE BROTHERHOOD. 95 

more in faith and love towards Him who is ever faithful, and 
wise, and mighty, and to make us contemplate more affectionately 
His noble conduct, who endured Avorse contradiction from sinners, 
under circumstances eminently calculated to sour all His bene- 
volence, and transfoi-m it to the bitterest wiath. But His spirit 
rose only to a higher pitch of benevolent compassion." 

As his proceedings in this case gained for Mr. Hale the 
unenviable reputation of being a disturber of the church, 
and an enemy of the ministry, it is due to his memory that 
he should be allowed to testify to his own motives and feel- 
ings in these respects. The following extract from a letter 
Avhich he addressed to the writer, when agitating the ques- 
tion of accepting the call of the Broadway Tabernacle 
Church, shows that he was aware of the prejudices existing 
against him on account of the transactions referred to, and 
that he was ready to justify his conduct as resistance to ec- 
clesiastical domination. 

" I would not advise any man to attempt to live with me (as my 
pastor) upon the plan of refusing me liberty to speak in the 
meetings of the church, or any other brother, nor upon the plan 
of crushing any brother for his own gratification, nor upon the 
plan that whatever he proposes must be law, whether it be wise or 
unwise. But I think you have no such propensities ; and if you' 
come to be my pastor, yon may defeat my plans and get me voted 
down as often as you please, by fair discussion, and you shall 
never lose my affectionate regard on that account. But my im- 
pression is, that we should think alike, fi'om the beginning of the 
year to its end ; and, certainly, your own proper province I shall 
always be glad to have you manage to suit yourself, without any 
care of mine. My wish is, that our glorious Master may be honor- 
ed, and his gospel proclaimed by every tongue, to the ends of the 
earth ; and I never mean to act from any motive of selfish or 
personal feeling." 

The effect of this discussion on the mind of Mr. Hale was 
to increase his jealousy of official prerogatives in a church, 
and his love for the free ecclesiastical institutions of New 
England. He began to study more attentively the Word of 
God, with reference to the rudimental principles of church 



96 MEMOIR. 

polity therein contained. Thus the providence of God was 
preparing him to be, as it wore, the parent of a new move- 
ment in the religious aftairs of New Yoi-k, and in the midst 
of ecclesiastical systems so long established here as to claim 
a sort of prescriptive right to the soil, to mtroduce success- 
fully that simple and efficient system of church polity which 
has existed in New England from its first settlement, which 
is believed to have been substantially the system of the pri- 
mitive churches, and which best secures Christian liberty 
and best develops Christian character. For such a move- 
ment there was needed a leader who could confront jealousy 
and bear the opposition even of brethren, — who should be 
able to defend the cause which he espoused, — one who could 
go forward, if need be, alone, and in face of a virtual ex- 
communication from Christian fellowship, to do what he felt 
to be important for the interests of truth and of Christ's 
kingdom. 

The occasion for this new movement arose m the following 
manner. The pecuniary! aftaii-s of the Tabernacle Church 
had become greatly embarrassed. Several of the original 
friends of the enterprise, including the two principal sub- 
scribers to the buildings had withdrawn from it, and those 
who remained were generally persons of little property, or 
were suffering from the commercial revulsion of 1837. 
Many too had become disafiected during the controversy, 
and had removed to other chui'ches. It was impossible any 
longer to defray the current expenses of the church, or even 
to meet the interest on the debt. Accordingly a mortgage, 
held by Mr. W. Green, was prosecuted to foreclosure, 
and the Tabernacle was advertised to be sold at auction. 
The elders and trustees made strenuous eftbrts to avert this 
crisis. At their solicitation, a highly respectable committee 
from other Presbyterian churches was appointed to devise a 
plan by which the Tabernacle might be saved for the uses 
of a Christian church, and of the benevolent societies. 



II 



PURCHASE OF THE TABERNACLE, 97 

Mcaiiwliilc Mr. Hale had resolved in the last resort, to 
buy the Tabernacle himself. He announced this intention 
to the trustees, requesting to be notified whenever their own 
plans were finally abandoned. The committee from other 
churches, believing it impossible to extricate the Tabernacle 
Church from its embarrassments, approved Mr. Hale's plan, 
and recommended him to make the purchase. He bid off 
the Tabernacle at a chancery sale, July 2d, 1840, for 
$34,30-3 74. The whole affair is thus recounted in a letter 
to his son : 

" I look upon the purchase of the Tab(3rnacle as an era in 
religious policy in all the country south of New England. We 
shall go for pure Congregationalism in all its simplicity. The 
story of the matter was on this wise. Tlie Tabernacle Avas ad- 
vertised for sale under a decree of the Chancellor on the 2d of 
J Illy. Nine days before the time the rulers called the people 
togetlier, and disclosed to them the desperate state of their affairs. 
Mr. Parker had just before announced his resignation. At this 
meeting it was pi-oposed to call Dr. Beechei-, and the elders 
thought if the church would raise a large subsci'iption, and call 
Dr. Beecher, they could get help for the money. I said that I 
did not think much of such expedients as calling Dr. ]3eecher, 
much as I should approve of him as pastor, that time was pre- 
cious, and I thought I could tell how the house could be saved. 
I tliought Congregationalism could save it. They went on witli 
calling Dr. Beecher, &c., and called meetings of Presbytery^ 
until tlirce days before the sale, when a committee of Presbyte- 
rian elders called on me to know my plan. I disclosed my pecu- 
niary means and plan of operations. The result was that they 
reported that it was inexpedient to attempt to extricate the old 
concern, but that I had better buy the house. I saw Mr. Green, 
tlie mortgagee on wliose claim the house was to be sold, on the 
next day after the committee called on me, made the arrange- 
ments I wished, and the next day after that bouglit the house at 
auction. I paid about $20,000 by my own notes, and $9,500 in 
cash. The cash was most of it loaned by Presbyterians for five 
years. Tlie old chui'ch were astounded at tlie movement, aiul 
although compelled to praise what I had done in the liighest 
terms, they were still so angry that they have left no stone un- 
turned to do the new enterprise mischief. We have however 
been wonderfully prospered. Elder P. stands with us boldly, 
and is happy as a prince in the new attitude of affairs. We are 
5 



98 MEMOIR. 

strong, however, witli first-rate men for all posts, a capital choir, 
led by Mr. Andrews, of the Academy of Music, and above all, 
strong in the Lord, I trust. The course of the brethren is right. 
They start with prayer, and go on with firm and humble steps. 
Our pulpit has been well supplied for a month now since we 
separated. 

" The events of Providence have wonderfully favored us. I 
did not dream of bringing in Congregationalism with the help of 
Presbyterians, but so it is, and it is most Avonderful. It fills 
me with joy and gratitude to see what God has wrought. May 
the movement be greatly to His praise. Our church is not 
yet formed, but will be probably in a few days. I sent you in 
a bundle of papers, yesterday, a report of the committee on 
Covenant, Rules, &c. We are all wide awake, and extremely 
happy." 

On the evening of the day of the purchase, at a very full 
meeting of the Tabernacle Church (which then consisted of 
five or six hundred members), Mr. Hale informed them that 
he had bought the house for their benefit and that of the 
Christian public, and invited as many of the members as 
might be so disposed to unite with him in forming in the Ta- 
bernacle a Congregational church after the pattern of the 
primitive churches and the churches of New England. The 
officers of the church were unfavorable to this movement, 
and the result was that the members dispersed in various 
directions, and the church became extinct. 

Rev. Mr. Parker preached in the Tabernacle on the fol- 
lowing Sabbath, and on Monday evening, July 6th, the last 
meeting was held in the lecture-room of the building. Not- 
withstanding the recommendation of the officers of the 
church, that the members should unite Avith other Presby- 
terian churches, and the public declaration that " not ten 
respectable families in New York Avould attend a Congrega- 
tional church," at the close of the meeting some thirty or 
forty brethren remained to take measures for organizing 
such a church ; and having conversed together upon the im- 
portance of the step they proposed to take, they kneeled 
down and prayed, commending themselves and the church 



PURCHASE OF THE TABERNACLE. 09 

about to be formed, to the guidance and care of God. A 
conunittce Avas then appointed to t:iko measures for the for- 
mation of a Congregational clnu-ch. The movement was 
entered into Avitli much spirit 3 several brethren from other 
churches joined in it, and after liaving agreed upon some per- 
manent principles of government, articles of faith, a cove- 
nant and a form of admission, the persons whose evidences 
of piety had been made nmtually satisfactory upon exami- 
nation, entered into covenant with each otlier, and with God, 
and constituted themselves a church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, under the name of " Broadway Tabernacle Church." 
The articles of faith, form of admission and covenant were 
substantially those of Park-street Church, Boston. 

To meet the obligations which he had assumed in the 
purchase of the Tabernacle, Mr. Hale was obliged to borrow 
immediately between nine and ten thousand dollars. His 
private resources at that time were limited, and the receipts 
of the Journal of Commerce were absorbed in the payment 
of its debts. " Money was worth two per cent, a month, 
;uid property and credit were at the lowest ebb." It was 
in such circumstances that Mr. Hale bought the Taber- 
nacle, not as a matter of specuhition — although he might 
have made several thousand dollars out of the transac- 
tion — but for the public good. He shouldered a bur- 
den which Christians of ample fortune would not touch 
with their little finger. The foresight with which ho 
planned this purchase, the energy with which he put his 
plans in execution, the zeal and patience and self-denial 
with Avhich he labored through evil report to secure an 
important public benefit, evinced a great and noble mind. 
He risked all his resources and all his credit upon this one 
enterprise, for the sake not of gain but of good. He made 
the venture in faith, and God prospered him. When he 
bought the Tabernacle he had but little unencumbered 
property. It was necessary for him to negotiate a loan 



100 MEMOIR. 

of $9,533 82, which according to the terms of sale was to 
be paid in cash, the balance being payable by his own notes 
or bond to be liquidated by quarter-yearly payments of 
$1,250, with interest on the principal sum. In this he was 
assisted by several gentlemen of high commercial standing 
and Christian character, among whom were Messrs. Erastus 
C. Benedict, James Boerman, James Brown, Benjamin F. 
Butler, WiUiam W. Chester, William B. Crosby, Henry 
Grinnell, Robert T. Haines, Jacob Little, Sidney E. Morse, 
Christopher R. Robert, and A. R. Wetmore. The follow- 
ing recommendation was given by three of the gentlemen 
above-named, who were appointed by a meeting called for 
the purpose, to " confer with Mr. Hale in regard to raising 
the money Avanted." After stating the terms of the loan, 
they say, 

" The undersigned, believing it to be very important that the 
Tabernacle should be placed in such a position that it may be 
used when wanted by the various; benevolent societies of the day, 
and for other moral and religious purposes, deem it but just and 
reasonable, that Mr. Hale should be aided in this laudable ob- 
ject by the Christian public, and trust he will receive aid, to 
the extent asked. 

"WM. W. CHESTER, 
"R. T. HAINES, 
"C. R. ROBERT." 

These gentlemen did not agree with Mr. Hale in his views 

of Congregationalism, but they appreciated his motives in 

purchasing the Tabernacle, and had confidence in his inte- 

. grity. With this aid Mr. Hale felt sure that he could make 

the building pay for itself by public uses. 

The church which had been formed on the 6th of July 
was formally constituted and publicly recognized by an ec- 
clesiastical council on the 3d of September following. 
There were present at that council Rev. Drs. Skinner, 
Bacon, Patton, and Todd, and Rev. Messrs. J. Harrison, 
J. Marsh, G. R. Haswell and P. Lockwood, with delegates 



TABERNACLE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 101 

from several clmrches. The occasion possessed therefore 
all the dignity that could be desired. 

In January, 1841, Rev. E. W. Andrews, of West Hart- 
fort, Conn., was installed pastor of the church by a numerous 
and highly respectable council. He entered upon his minis- 
try with very encouraging prospects. 

Mr. Hale was exceedingly happy in the success of the en- 
terprise. In a letter to his esteemed friend. Rev. Levi Nel- 
son, he thus pours out the fullness of his heart : 

" Mr. Andrews was installed on the last Sabbath evening of 
January. The exercises were excellent, the house full. Even 
Presbyterians present were filled with admiration. Prime Yan- 
kees are now joining us from all tlie churches round about. 
About thirty are now propounded. Everything has been ordered 
admirably in Providence. Never did God prosper anything 
more. I bless His name, and am happy, and have been from the 
day I bouglit the house. Our pastor, we think, is just the man 
— of the Connecticut old school — and now if God will add the 
blessing of His Spirit, sinners Avill be converted." 

It was Mr. Hale's first aim, in the new Tabernacle Church, 
to profit by experience, and to guard against those sources 
of difficulty which had existed in the former organization. 
This was effected in a great measure by the simple change 
of organization; for a church in which every brother is admit- 
ted to a full participation in all its affairs, and where matters 
are determined by a majority of votes, is much more likely 
to possess unity and peace, combined with strength and 
Christian activity, than a church whose affairs are managed 
by a few individuals. But in addition to this it was felt to 
be important to lay down at the outset certain principles or 
rules of action, which could always be appealed to for the set- 
tlement of disputed questions. One point on which Mr. Hale 
particularly insisted was that the church, as an organized 
body, should he kept distinct from all other associations, and 
should not be made the agent of specific measures of reform. 
Accordingly he secured the adoption of the following de- 



102 MEMOIR. 

claration as tlie fundamental principle of the church, viz. : 
" The design of a Christian church we understand to he the 
enjoyment of Christian ordinances., and the riiaintenance of 
the worship of God.^^ 

This declaration was afterwards amended so as to include 
the definition of a church, in these words : " A Christian 
Church we understand properly to be, and we accordingly 
declare this church to be, an association of professed believ- 
ers in Christ for mutual watchfulness, for the- enjoyment of 
Christian ordinances, and the maintenance of the worship 
of God." 

Such a declaration was of great importance at a time 
when there was a strong tendency to transform churches into 
societies for particular reforms, and even for political action. 
The working of this principle in the Broadway Tabernacle 
Church has been most happy. Though some of the promi- 
nent members of the church are zealous for particular meas- 
ures of reform, the church itself has never been agitated by 
these subjects, for since every brother is left at liberty to 
advocate any reform, and to join or to organize any re- 
form society, all are satisfied with this unrestricted personal 
influence without demanding church action in their favorite 
cause. Prayer and remarks, with reference to such sub- 
jects, are unrestrained ; personal action is free ; but legisla- 
tion in the church upon subjects so foreign to the design of 
a church is not desired by any. Each member of the chui'ch 
is responsible to his brethren for his general walk and con- 
versation, but may appropriate his efforts to any depart- 
ment of benevolent labor to which, in his own judgment, he 
is called by the Master, to whom he is directly responsible 
for the use of all the talents which have been committed to 
his hands. At the same time any member of the church, in 
voting upon the reception of a candidate into church fellow- 
ship, may make the opinions and practice of the person with 
regard to the use and sale of intoxicating drinks, slavehold- 



OBJECT OF A CHURCH. 103 

ing, dancing, and any other act of questionable moralitj, 
a test of pictj, and the whole church may have a common 
moral sentiment upon such subjects which shall express itself 
as occasions arise, while tliey avoid the dangerous expedient 
of legislating on specific moral questions in the abstract. 

These fundamental principles of clmrch organization stand 
in tlie Broadway Tabernacle Church as a monument of the 
wisdom and foresiglit of David Hale, who derived them not 
from books nor from men, but from the study of the rudi- 
ments of church polity contained in the New Testament. 

In accordance with these principles, the church, at an 
early period of its history, adopted the following preamble 
and resolution : 

" Whereas the desirjn of a Christian church, as stated in the 
first declaration of this church, is the enjoyment of Christian or- 
dinances and the maintenance of the worship of God ; and where- 
as a Congregational church possesses no power to compel a 
member to engage in any particular department of Christian 
labor; and wliereas there are now societies to which Christians 
may unite themselves for the furtherance of all works of Chris- 
tian ben(!volence, if they believe that their usefulness will be 
thereby promoted ; and Avhereas we have, in this church, mem- 
bers who are connected with almost all the great religious chari- 
table societies, who may see to the interests of those societies ; 
and whereas, there is great diversity of opinion among us in re- 
ference to the various charitable movements of the day, but 
great harmony in regard to the peculiar and special designs of 
the church, which harmony may be interrupted, as it has been 
in other churches, b}^ any effort to cooperate in our organized 
capacity with other societies : — Therefore, 

" Resolved, That we deem it expedient in our action, as a 
church, to confine ourselves to that design set forth in the fol- 
lowing declaration, viz.: 'The design of a Christian church 
w(> understand to be the enjoyment of Christian ordinances, 
and the maintenance of the worship of God.' " 

At the same time every facility was provided for the pre- 
sentation of benevolent objects from the pulpit and for col- 
lections in their behalf. 

The Tabernacle Church continued to prosper. In 1841, 



104 MEMOIR. 

114 members were added to it, thirteen of Avhom united on 
profession of tlicir faitli, — among them two daughters of 
Mr. Hale. In 18 i2, there were 130 additions, sixty on pro- 
fessi'on ; in 1843, 88, of whom thirty-four united on profes- 
sion ; and the church now numbers about 450 members, and 
has liad connected with it in all more than 700. In this pros- 
perity Mr. Hale exceedingly rejoiced. He often spoke of it 
both in private and in public, and alluded to it with thanks- 
giving in his prayers. Before he was called away, he was 
permitted to see his cherished Tabernacle Church estab- 
lished on a firm basis, hoth in numbers and in pecuniary 
strength, and growing in self-sustaining power, liberality 
and usefulness, — to enjoy in connection with it several revi- 
vals of religion, and very many delightful seasons of prayer 
and praise, — and to see his entire household gathered into its 
bosom. 

Mr. Hale's connection with the Tabernacle was widely 
misunderstood and misrepresented. What he did for the 
glory of God and the promotion of Christian truth, liber- 
ty, activity, and love, was imputed to the most narrow 
and selfish motives. Having bought the house entirely on 
his own responsibility, at a time when his pecuniary re- 
sources were limited, and having given on account of the 
purchase his own notes to a large amount, he was obliged to 
open the house more freely to public uses in order that 
the income from these lettings might pay the interest on 
loans and mortgages, ground-rent, and other current ex- 
penses, in all exceeding four thousand dollar.!. In so doing 
Mr. Hale sometimes allowed the Tabernacle to be used for 
purposes which were disapproved by the church and the 
Christian community, and as neither the extent of his obli- 
gations, nor his agreement to surrender the property to the 
churcli at cost, were generally known, the impression went 
abroad that he rented the building for the sake of gain, and 
was deriving a handsome income from worldly amusements. 



USES OF THE TABERNACLE. 105 

This greatly scandalized some good people, and furnished 
his political and personal enemies with an inexhaustible 
fund of satire and abuse. All this he bore good-naturedly, 
knowing that in due time the whole matter would be under- 
stood. He had some peculiar notions as to the purposes for 
which such a building as the Tabernacle should be used, but 
he was ever ready to regard the wishes of his brethren in 
the church, even when he had entire control of the build- 
ing. For several years he had the sole management of the 
building, renting it as he had opportunity for public pur- 
poses, and transacting all the business pertaining thereto, — 
for none of which services did he ever receive a single cent for 
his own benefit. As soon as the new church was organized, 
Mr. Hale leased the Tabernacle to the ecclesiastical society 
or congregation for ten years at ai\ annual rent of one thou- 
sand dollars. By the terms of this lease the congregation 
were to have the exclusive use of the audience-chamber on 
the Sabbath, and of the lecture-room and other apartments 
during the week, and to receive all the revenue from pew- 
rents and collections, defraying their own expenses, — Mr. 
Hale reserving the right to let the building for miscellaneous 
purposes during the week, and engaging to meet all the ex- 
penses of the property. It was further stipulated, that at any 
time within the ten years, the Broadway Tabernacle Society 
might purchase the property at cost, interest included, and 
that the net income of the building in the interim should 
constitute a sinking fund for such purchase. Thus Mr. 
Hale voluntarily put it out of his power ever to realize one 
dollar from what might have proved a most lucrative invest- 
ment. He bought the Tabernacle at his own risk, intending 
tliat the property by its earnings should as it were redeem 
itself for the perpetual use and benefit of a Congregational 
church. An act so dismterested is hardly credited by a 
selfish world. Some sinister motive is ever suspected by 
5* 



106 MEMOIR. 

those who know not what it is to forego self-interest for the 
glory of God. 

• The result of this arrangement Avas that when in March, 
1845, the Society purchased the Tabernacle, its cost to them 
was reduced by the net earnings of five years to about 
$30,000. Of this sum about $12,000 was raised by the 
sale of pews, which was paid to Mr. Hale, and a mortgage 
on the property was given for the balance. The income 
from the rents and extra uses of the house has not only 
paid the interest on the debt, but has reduced the principal 
by one-third, and in a few years will extinguish it entirely, 
without any pressure on the congregation. To accomplish 
this object tlie miscelbuieous uses of the house are still ne- 
cessary. If those who complain of such uses would oflTor to 
pay oif the debt by subscription or by purchasing pews, 
and would assist in raising the eight or nine thousand dol- 
lars per annum, which are required to meet the current ex- 
penses of the Tabernacle enterprise, the trustees and con- 
gregation Avould cheerfully listen to their proposals. Mean- 
while they will do the best they can to keep this vast edifice 
in the possession of an evangelical church, and for the great 
interests of benevolence, humanity, literary culture, and 
social refinement. When the Broadway Tabernacle, freed 
from all encumbrances, shall have become a center of moral 
and religious influences for New York and for the Union, 
speaking ever with one voice, and making one grand moral 
impression, — when the few remaining churches in the lower 
part of the city one by one shall have been removed, and 
this vast edifice shall stand with open gates inviting the 
stranger, the poor, the young men of the eitv, the giddy, 
pleasure-seeking throngs on the great thoroughfare to enter, 
and hear the word of life, while it shall continue also from 
year to year to gather beneath its dome the thousands of 
Israel to hear and consult of the public interests of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom, — then perhaps those who have never lift- 



DOMESTIC CHANGES. lOY 

ed :i finger to sustain the enterprise, but have carped at the 
occasional uses of the house, whicli were dictated by neces- 
sity, shall begiji to coni))reheud the sagacity and the inagna- 
niuiity of one, who i'or no personal c.molunient or advantage, 
but at nuich j)ers()nal iucouvenience and sacrifice, :it the risk 
of property, and in face of opposition a.nd ol)lo(|uy, saved 
the Tabernacle from becoming a grand center of evil where 
stipci-stition and error sliould l)e enslirine(l, or the goddess 
of pleasure and lust should hold her court ; — then tardy 
justice will be rendered to David Hale for the crowning act 
of his life. 

In the interval covered by these public events, important 
changes had taken place in the family of Mr. Male. The 
children of the first Mrs. Hale had grown to maturity, and 
some of them Avero married, while an equal number had 
been a,ddcd to the household — one of whom died in infancy. 
Mr. Hale's intercourse with his children was characterized 
by an alFectionate interest in all their aftairs, and a deep 
concern for their spiritual welfare. His constant aim was 
to lead them to form those traits of character which were so 
conspicuous in himself — sincerity, independence, and bene- 
volence. Tn his letters to them, even the youngest, when 
away from home at school, tliere was always a wise adapta- 
tion of his counsels to their understanding, habits, and dis- 
position, and some liappy turning of the thoughts to religion 
as the chief thing. A few extra,cts from these letters will 
be found in tlie Appendix.* Tliey are good models of cor- 
respondence for Christian parents. 

In the year 1844, he was called to part with liis second 
daughter, Mrs. Lydia Devan, for the missionary work in 
China. Both in person and in character, this daughter strik- 
ingly resembled the sainted mother whose name she l)ore. 
She was greatly endeared to all who knew her. From child- 

* See Appendix D. 



108 MEMOIR. 

hood she had cherished a desire to be a missionary, and 
after she was married and pk^isantlj settled in New York, 
she still clung to the same desire. At length, on the open- 
ing of China to missionary effort, her husband, then in good 
practice as a physician, but sharing in her wish to proclaim 
the Gospel to the heathen, received from the Baptist Board 
of Missions — with which denomination he was connected — 
an appointment to that interesting field. Nothing could 
have been more grateful to the feelings of Mrs. Devan. 
Her fondest aspirations were now to be fulfilled ; yet, ready 
as she was to go, and free to act her own pleasure, she 
sought the counsel of her father. The manner in which Mr. 
Hale regarded the subject is thus described by a friend : 

" He viewed the event, not as a matter of personal feel- 
ing, but as he viewed almost every thing, — in its bearing 
upon the kingdom of Christ, and the well-being of mankind. 
He had long known Eydia's attachment to the cause of mis- 
sions, and her ardent desire to devote her life to that cause. 
When she was not far from sixteen years of age, she con- 
ceived a strong wish to join a company of missionaries who 
were going to Greece, and there to become a teacher. 
Being at that time at school, away from home, she wrote to 
her father, requesting permission to go. But he could not 
consent to it, on account of her extreme youth and inexperi- 
ence, and the want of such protection as so young a female 
would need. 

" These objections, however, no longep existed, when it 
was proposed that she should go to China. It was evident 
that her missionary spirit had not abated, for Avliile the way 
was not open for her to enter on a foreign mission, she was 
an active missionary at home. Her knowledge and experi- 
ence were much increased, and her judgment nfature. And 
besides all this, she had enjoyed six years experience of the 
faitliful devotion of a husband whom she loved most ardent- 
ly, and who ever studied to promote her happmess. 



MRS. LYDIA DEVAN. 100 

" Wlicn the proposition to go to China was made to Dr. 
and Mrs. Dcvan, the first step they took was to confer with 
her father on the subject. The interview was long, and 
deeply interesting. Having discussed fully and freely 
everything relating to it, Mr. Hale expressed his entire wil- 
lingness to have them go, and to render them all the aid in 
his power in carrying out their plans. This he did by giv- 
ing them one thousand dollars, all that he then felt able to 
give, and rendering aid in various smaller matters. 

" He loved this daughter with very warm affection, and 
always took peculiar pleasure in having her near him ; yet 
he was willing, he even rejoiced, to resign her at the call of 
the Savior, to serve Him in a heathen land. He felt that 
God had honored him by thus distinguishing his child, and 
that it would be sinful in him to mourn at her depar- 
ture." 

Hardly two years elapsed before this lovely and devoted 
woman — the first missionary who gained access to the women 
of China — was called to lay down her life in the cause she so 
much loved. Having just acquired the language, and an in- 
fluence over the Chinese of her own sex which promised much 
good, she was summoned away by death on tlie 18th of Oc- 
tober, 1846. She sleeps at Whampoa in the vicinity of Can-^ 
ton.* Mr. Hale received the unexpected intelligence of her 
decease with great calmness, and reiterated the sentiments 
he had expressed on bidding her adieu. The news reached 
New York on the. day of the weekly prayer-meeting of the 
Tabernacle Church. At that meeting Mr. Hale was in his 
place — the object of regard and sympatby to all present. 
No formal mention of his bereavement was needed ; the in- 
telligence had gone from mouth to mouth, and with it grief 
had spread from heart to heart. After the opening exer- 
cises, that exquisite hymn by Dr. L. Bacon — 
" Hail tranquil hour of closing day !" — 
* See Appendix E. 



no 



MEMOIR 



a hymn penned while watching the slow decline of the part- 
ner of his life — having been sung, was commented on by the 
pastor as appropriate to the occasion. The following stanza 
was particularly dwelt upon : 

" How sweet to look, in thoughtful hope, 

Beyond this fading sky, 
And hear Him call his children up 

To His fair home on high." 

It was remarked that God knows where all His children 
are, and is calling them home, now from one land, now from 
another, till all shall be gathered in His presence and glory. 

Scarcely were these remarks finished when Mr. Hale rose 
and said, "I suppose you hardly expect me to speak to- 
night, and yet I know not why I should not speak to-night 
if ever. I cannot mourn for my daughter (and here his 
utterance choked) — I bless God that He gave me such a 
daughter, and that He inclined her to go and serve Him 
among the heathen ; and now that He has taken her to Him- 
self, shall I mourn? How diflerent are my feelings from 
those of a parent whose son has fallen on a Mexican battle- 
field ! I might have reason to mourn if a child of mine had 
died in such a war as that in which we are engaged against 
a weak, half-civilized, sister nation. But now I have no 
tears to shed. Much as I love my children, I cannot expect 
always to have them around me — to dandle them always 
upon my knee ; nor do I desire to ; I have something else to 
do, and I trust they have also. I have consecrated them to 
God, and have endeavored to train them for usefulness, 
and now if Christ honors one of them witli a call to serve 
Him anywhere in His kiiigdom, shall I object and complain ? 
No ; I will rejoice at it. We ought not to talk of such things 
as a sacrifice, and make an ado about parting with our chil- 
dren for Christ. I say to these young converts (it was a 
season of revival) if any of you shall go to serve Him among 



SUBMISSION UNDER TRIALS. Ill 

the heathen, I'll help you with my prayers, I'll help you 
with my money, but IwonH shed a tear; I'll rejoice over it." 

What a noble exhibition of Christian firmness under afflic- 
tion, of supreme love to Christ and His glorious cause ! 

The following letter addressed soon after to myself when 
called to Philadelphia by the sudden death of a sister, shows 
how deep was Mr. Hale's sensibility under affliction, and 
how fully he realized the comforts of the Gospel ; 

New York, Feb. 6, 1847. 
My Dear Pastor — 

In thinking of you last night, I determined to write you a 
letter to-day, thinking that I would try to repay you in part for 
the sympathy which you so kindly exhibited for me. I am "-lad 
to receive your letter of yesterday, and by it to know more per- 
fectly the measure of your grief. It is dangerous, in a world like 
this, to have precious things given to us — it is so very hard to 
part with them. Some kind parents take care to keep from their 
children tlie things on which their love will fasten, it will be so 
difficult to take them away. Others give them and take them 
away for the purpose of discipline. I have never been surround- 
ed by so many objects to love as you have. I have no lovely 
sister to die, though I have had so many objects of my love, that 
I have shed many bitter tears over their loss. But you, I fear, 
have still more to shed, and I trust much higher grace to reach 
than I can expect. 

This world looks strangely to me. Such high hope, such rich 
enjoyments, snatched away from us as if to mock our agony, and 
yet all in love. What sad waywardness it is which requires such 
discipline to correct it ! But 1 know that all the thoughts tliat I 
could suggest are present with you, and I trust we shall both hold 
fast to the steadfast throne of God, for there is nothing else which 
Avill not tear itself from our grasp as the storms of life beat over 
us. It is our unspeakable comfort to believe that our dear ones 
have gone to better friends, and that they are not lost even to us. 

May the Good Spirit comfort your heart by His presence, and 
may we all learn the lessons of love to God and dependence joy- 
fully on Him, which will prepare us to serve Him more, and each 
other more, and so be ready for the perfect love of a perfect 
state, — where we shall be satisfied. 

Yours, affectionately, 

D. HALE. 



112 MEMOIR, 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Hale did not continue his 
private journal beyond the first few years of his Christian 
experience, and that after the death of his father, his cor- 
respondence, with the exception of occasional letters, was 
limited to matters of business. We are thus deprived of 
two important sources of evidence as to his religious character 
in later life. But while we lack such a record of his feelings 
as would be furnished by the self-communings and reflections 
of a diary, or by the free and familiar expressions of a 
friendly and confidential correspondence, we have the evi- 
dence of his character in the acts of a life which was uncom- 
monly open to inspection. It was felt by those who knew 
him best, that in the last few years of his life his Christian 
character rapidly matured and developed itself with symme- 
try and completeness. 

The cheerful tone of his piety at this period, which was 
remarked by all who knew him as a Christian, was owing in 
no small measure to the success which had crowned the Ta- 
bernacle entcrpi'ise. The enjoyment which he found in his 
new church relations was greatly hightened by contrast 
with the scenes of controversy through which he had passed. 
He felt too that in the organization of the Tabernacle Con- 
gregational Church, he had secured the recognition and the 
preservation of important principles, and had contributed to 
the progress of the Redeemer's Kingdom. His frequent 
allusions to this were imputed by some to a spirit of boast- 
ing — but they were prompted rather by joy and gratitude 
for the success of an undertaking to which he had consecrat- 
ed time, thought, feeling, character, and money, for the 
glory of God. And well might he rejoice when he saw not 
only the Tabernacle Church prosperous, but other Congrega- 
tional churches springing up vigorously in New York and 
Brooklyn, as a consequence of his original movement.* ■{ 

Mr. Hale was devoted to the Tabernacle Church in all its 
• See appendix F. 



ACTIVITY IN THE CHURCH. 113 

interests. Feeling the need of rest on the Sabbath after 
the exhausting labors of his profession during the week, he 
did not indeed engage in Sabbath-school instruction as ho 
had done in former years ; but he was a member of the choir, 
till within about two years of his death, and was regularly 
present at the weekly rehearsal. Ho uniformly attended 
public service three times on the Sabbath, and / do not re- 
member ever to have missed him from a stated religious 
meeting during the week, when he was in the city and in 
health. He would come to those meetings from his office, 
without his evening meal, rejoicing in such a relief from 
temporal cares. In seasons of special interest, he would at- 
tend a religious meeting almost every evening for weeks in 
succession. 

He loved religion, ho loved the cause of Christ, he loved 
the people of God, he loved prayer, and the faithful, earnest 
preaching of the Word. Nothing would move him to tears 
so quickly as the narrative of the conversion of souls to 
Christ ; nothing would light up his rugged countenance with 
such joy as did the intelligence of the pro'gress of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom in any part of the world. He was in his 
element at the monthly concert of prayer. His comprehen- 
sive review of the news of the month in its bearing on the 
advancement of Christ's kingdom was always instructive ; 
he rejoiced in every indication of progress, and said, with 
reference to the great physical improvements and bene- 
volent enterprises of his day, that the world had been made 
since he was born. On such topics, his love of liberty, and 
his enlarged charity and benevolence, came prominently into 
view ; and his soul was often fired as from God's own altar, 
as he dilated on the coming glories of the Redeemer's reign. 
How withering at such times was his sarcasm upon those 
who were busying themselves with their own mean affairs, — 
living for gold or honor ! He felt that there was no great- 
ness but in connection with God's service. 



114 MEMOIR. 

This idea he often dwelt upon in his exliortations. On 
one occasion, at a prayer-meeting, allusion had been made 
to a female member of the church, then dangerously ill, who, 
when asked whether she had a consciousness of supreme love 
to Christ, replied, "I do not think I should have been will- 
ing to go so far in all weather to teach my class in the color- 
ed Sabbath-school, if I did not love Him :" Mr. Hale arose 
and said, " Ah, that is it. We see what will give us com- 
fort in death. It is not that we have been great, or rich, or 
honored ; it is not the great things that we have done ; it is 
teaching poor, colored children ; it is visiting the poor ; it is 
laboring in the Sabbath-school ; it is doing something, how- 
ever humble, for Christ. This will give us comfort when 
we die." Thus did he encourage the poorer and feebler 
members of the church. Indeed he himself delighted in 
such services mor.e than in his public labors and benefactions 
for the cause of Christ. And doubtless from such services 
will flow results which will be immeasurably joyful to him in 
eternity. It Avas but the other day that an anecdote illus- 
trating Mr. Hale's usefulness as a Sabbath-school teacher, 
was brought casually to my notice in a newspaper published 
by the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

" A minister of this city, in preaching for the benefit of a 
Sunday-school, a few Sabbaths since, related the following 
story : 

" A lad, in Boston, was in the class of a Sunday-school 
teacher, (the late David Hale,) who for a long time occupied 
a large space in the public eye. When the lad meditated a 
departure from the school, to accompany his parents to 
Europe, his teacher got him to learn eight verses of the 
sacred Scripture, in which were the words, '/ will behave 
myself wisely in a j)crfect icay.' Before he quit the 
shores of his native land, his faithful teacher presented him 
with a copy of the New Testament, writing on one of its 



RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 115 

blank leaves those same words. After an absence of seve- 
ral years, that Sunday-school boy set sail for homo again. 
During the voyage they met with a calamity; an officer 
was lost overboard. While attempts were making to re- 
cover tlie man, which it was plainly seen must prove fruit- 
less, anotlier officer ste])pcd into the cabin, and whispered 
in that boy's ear, ' Look in the man's state-room, and see 
if he left his watch hanging tliere ; if he did, take it, and 
put it on yourself ; no one will know it : it will be thought 
he had it on when he was lost!' The boy stepped to 
the door, and saw the watch hanging where it had been 
left. ' Now, then,' said the lad, in his heart, ' shall I, 
just returning to my native land, witli a fair character, and 
to commence life for myself, begin with theft?' His soul 
revolted at the thought, and then, Avitli the vividness of 
inspiration, rose up those words within him, ' I will behave 
myself wisely in a perfect way!' That boy became a 
minister — that minister now addresses you." 

I know not whether Mr. Hale was ever informed of the 
good effect of his counsels in this case. Many others are 
under a like obligation to him for his kind and faithful 
instructions ; and while he rests from his labors his Avorks 
do follow him. Much good is yet to flow both from his 
labors and his charities. Of the extent of the latter the 
world knew nothing. He often gave money largely, and 
when, as in the purchase of the Tabernacle, he had a great 
end to accomplish, he never scrupled at the cost. But the 
beauty of his benevolence was tliat it was hal>itual, cheerful, 
systematic, comprehensive, and from principle. His native 
disposition was generous, but that trait was refined and am- 
plified under the influence of an evangelical faith. Many 
pleasing instances of his liberality might here be mentioned ; 
but the record of all his good deeds would fill the volume. 

Soon after his conversion, at a time when his means were 
very scanty, being on a visit to his cousin, at Lisbon, Conn., 



116 



MEMOIR* 



he called upon a worthy couple in the town, whose means of 
support hail been diminished through age and infirmities. 
Seeing their condition, he left a sum of money with his cousin 
for their relief, charging her to conceal the name of the 
donor, and afterwards sent other sums for the same purpose. 
In after years, when he began to be prospci'ed, this relative 
herself often received from liim tokens of kindness, both in 
remittances of money, and in such articles for family use as 
arc always acceptable in the family of a country minister. 
And he would bestow such favors with a delicacy and a cor- 
diality which greatly enhanced their value. He khidly an- 
ticipated the wants of others, and tendered such aid as was 
in his power. Thus he advises his cousin, when in feeble 
health, to go to the Springs and remain as long as she may 
see fit, at his expense, and offers to provide her with a nurse 
or a traveling companion ; and again he suggests that she 
should come and place herself under the care of an eminent 
physician in New York, remarking that he " should be most 
happy to defray the expenses of the journey for her husband 
and herself, and also of the doctor." 

A young woman who supported herself by giving lessons 
in drawing, being ill, and threatened Avith loss of sight, Mr. 
Hale provided for her the best medical attendance at an ex- 
pense of two or three hundred dollars. The person thus be- 
friended had no claim upon him but that arising from her 
character and her necessities, and the act originated simply 
in the kindness of his heart. 

He used, either in person or through some member of his 
family, to seek out the poor of the church, or such others as 
were both needy and deserving, and minister to their relief. 
This was to him a constant source of pleasure. He never 
refused a call of charity which was fairly presented to his 
mind as desqrving of regard. One mode of doijig good with 
him, was that of accounnodating persons of limited means, in 
whom he could put confidence, with loans of money, either 



HIS CHARITIES. 117 

without interest or on very easy terms. Many a poor minis- 
ter had occasion to thank Mr. Hale for such a favor, be- 
stowed perhaps without solicitation, and as a delicate way of 
making a present of money to one who would not ask it, 
for he frequently canceled such debts in whole or in part. 
In the same spirit he would grant to members of the Taber- 
nacle Church accommodation in business which they could 
obtain nowhere else. 

His charities, while they were abundant and diversified, 
were also systematic and judicious. What he gave to 
benevolent objects was a part of his daily expenses. Such 
objects were not postponed till everything else was pro- 
vided for, and every other possible use had been made 
of money. They belonged to his regular expenditures. 
He gave away the greater part of his available earnings, 
and often anticipated them, for the promotion of benevolent 
objects. When possessed of ample means he did not live in 
luxury. He indulged in no display in dress, in equipage, or 
in his manner of living. His conduct in this respect was 
most exemplary. He would not keep a carriage, or live os- 
tentatiously, because he did not wish to appear to place him- 
self above his brethren in the church. His dwelling was 
furnished with as much plainness as was consistent with good 
taste and propriety. There was nothing in it for mere dis- 
play. He once remarked to me, as I was admiring the style 
and situation of his house, that he sometimes questioned 
whether it was right for him to occupy a house worth twenty 
thousand dollars, when money was so much needed to spread 
abroad the Gospel. The first use of money with him was to 
do good, and he endeavored to do good with money just in 
proportion as from time to time the Lord had prospered him. 
He used to say that he should think it wrong to suffer pro- 
perty to accumulate in his hands to the amount of $100,- 
000 ; and that he wanted money in order to give it away. He 
regarded himself as a mere steward of property for the Lord. 



118 MEMOIR. 

It "was a" frequent reinavk of his that he >Yisl\ed to do good 
■with his money whik^ he lived ; and he condennied the policy 
of hoarding up Avealth -while life lasts, and then appropriat- 
ing it to good uses only -when death renders it impossible to 
keep it longer. 

One of the most pleasing featm*es of his charity was its 
cheerfulness. He never gave grudgingly, nor merely from a 
sense of duty, but because it Avas a pleasure to give. A Se- 
cretary of one of our benevolent societies, after having pre- 
sented the object at the Tabernacle, called on him for his sub- 
scription. " Well," said J\Ir. Hale, " that was a good story 
and well told ; hcrc^s the money."'' 

His example in this respect greatly stimulated others. 
One of our most liberal merchants has told me that he omcs 
his disposition to do good with his money ver}' much to the 
example of David Hale. That example should be followed 
not only by those who are already prosperous in business, 
but also by young men who are uuirking out their course for 
life. 

From the beginning of his Christian life, Mr. Hale was 
distinguished for liberality. In Boston, when his means 
were limited, he gave hundreds of dollars to benevolent ob- 
jects, and when afterwards in this city his income increased, 
his contributions increased, as they should, in a higher ratio, 
until he gave away thousands anmmlly, and in tlie aggregate 
tens of thousands, to promote various objects of Christian 
benevolence. 

His inlluence on the Tabernacle Church in this respect 
was peculiarly happy. \\'heu I wished to introduce an 
object of benevolence to the church in a familiar way, I 
would always send the applicant to Mr. Hale ; then at a 
pi'ayer-meeting or lecture, would state the nature of the ap- 
plication: whereupon Mr. Hale would rise and say, " I have 
looked at this matter, and I think we ought to help to buiL 
tliis church, or support this missionary, (or whatever the 6 



i 



C O N G U K G A T I O \ A L K N 7" K II P It I S E S . 119 

jcct rnif^lit bo,) and I have made up rny mind to give twonty 
dollars, or fifty, or a liundred, (according to the object,) or 
if you will give ho much I will make up the balance, or 
double your HubscriptionH. The way to prosper is, t^j keep 
giving ; and it costs us very little to do a great deal of 
good." The effect of such a speech was always to secure a 
good collection. 

Of late years Mr. Hale's contributions were turned very 
much into the channel of Congregational enterprises. This 
was not owing to mere sectarian feeling. As we have seen, 
Congregationalism was with him a matter of principle. Ho 
did not value it as an isra, but as an embodiment of the free 
Spirit of the Gospel, as the best system of church organization 
for all the practical ends of such organization. I'herefore ho 
contributed his money most freely where the principles of 
the Puritans would be honored. But besides this, he was of 
opinion that Christians who had the means of doinf good 
on a large scale should have specific objects under their 
care, as for instance that one should sustain a college, another 
a church, a third a missionary, &c., and so he looked after 
interests which others were apt to overlook. I cannot ascer- 
tain how much he contributed towards Congregational ob- 
jects. He gave thousands of dollars X/) individual churches 
in this city and in Brooklyn, and sometimes assumed very 
heavy responsibilities for a new church enterprise.* He 
gave large sums of money to feeble churches or new organi 
zations in Western New York, and in regions farther west. 
He usually supported from his own purse one or more mis- 
sionaries at the West ; at one time three^ at an average salary 
of $;";00. The establishment of a Congregational church in 
Detroit would not have been attempted but for him. When 
the brethren who contemplated forming that church felt that 
they were too few and feeble for such an undertaking, Mr. 
• See Appendix F. 



120 MEMOIR. 

Hale pledged himself to pay the salary of the pastor ^^!t|50l 
per annum) for two years, Avhile at the same time he sup- 
ported a missionary evangelist among the feeble churches of 
Michigan. Says the late pastor of the church in Detroit, 
" Two thousand dollars came from him to me and through 
my hands to sustain the cause in Michigan." 

But I must pass to other points of his character as they 
presented themselves in the closing years of his life in which 
I knew him personally. 

The impression was quite common that Mr. Hale was apt 
to make trouble in a church and especially for his minister. 
I did not find it so. As much as any man I ever knew, 
David Hale was deserving of the uniform confidence, affec- 
tion and respect of his pastor, and his brethren of the 
church. To me he was always respectful, kind, generous, 
considerate of my feelings, influence, and happiness. Some- 
times I deemed it my duty to oppose in church-meeting a 
measure to which he was strongly committed ; but though 
his views were defeated, I never detected the least change 
in his deportment towards myself. The secret of which 
was simply that his rights as a private member of the 
church were respected, and he was met by fair and kindly 
argument instead of being put down by gag-law. 

He had certain traits of character which made him an un- 
desirable opponent to one who was in the wrong, or who Avas 
disposed to carry his point by subtlety, or by harsh and illi- 
beral measures. Yet those very traits rendered him a most 
efficient champion for truth and right. It might even be 
said in a sense that duty was his God. He earnestly sought 
the truth and endeavored to do the right. They were the 
poles of his soul, not opposite as antagonistic, but as mutu- 
ally supporting and balancing his whole moral nature. I 
have sometimes pictured to myself David Hale arraigned 
before the Inquisition, and called upon to confess that a 



DECISION OF ciiaracter: integrity. 121 

piece of paste was Christ ; or before Laud's Iligli Commis- 
sion to engage a strict conformity to the offices and ritual of 
the Established Cliurch ! Did ever a Lollard or a Huffue- 
not go to the stake ; did ever a Puritan go to the pillory, the 
prison, or the scaffold, with a higher devotion to the truth 
than would he ! He deny the truth ; he swerve from the 
right through fear of torture, through fear of death ! Ho 
had courage to do his duty in all circumstances, courage 
even to undertake an unwelcome service, and one which did 
not imperatively devolve upon him, for the sake of the truth. 
He had courage always to stand by his principles, and to face 
the consequences of his own acts. Even in the most trying 
circumstances, and when he knew that he was provoking a 
storm of opposition against himself, and was alienating his 
chief friends, he had the courage to do his duty. Yet his 
known integrity inspired confidence. His word could always 
be relied upon. He abhorred deception in any form and 
under any pretext whatever. He was thoroughly honest ; 
honest not only in business relations, but in all his inter- 
course with his fellow-men. He never resorted to petty ma- 
noeuvering to gain his end. iiut this very honesty was a 
cause of his unpopularity with some, for it made him quick to 
detect, and prompt to expose hypocrisy and fraud. He was 
the sworn enemy of imposture everywhere ; in church and in 
state ; in commerce, politics, medicine, science, literature 
and religion. Such honesty is not liked by all, but it is the 
very stamen of a sterling character. 

Coupled with this integrity of heart, Mr. Hale had a 
perfect frankness of manner. His sincerity was apparent 
to all. He carried his soul in his face, his faults as well as 
his virtues, and as you caught the light and shade, — as this 
or that phase came over his soul — so might you rend the 
man. I'here was no reserve about him. If he did not ap- 
prove your sentiments or conduct he would tell you so; and 



122 MEMOIR. 

when he said he did approve them you could believe him. 
What he thought and felt he hesitated not to utter ; nay, he 
could not but utter. His frankness was sometimes blunt, but 
it was commonly kind and often amiable. This quality made 
him some enemies, but it endeared him to his friends. It is 
one of the most desirable traits of character, and those who 
were long under his influence learned to value and to cul- 
tivate it. 

With Mr. Hale these traits were not the mere result of 
education or of natural cultivation, but of religious princi- 
ple. He was a conscicntioxis man ; he aimed to do right in 
the fear of God ; and he who acts from such a motive must 
be an honest man. His quick, sometimes almost intuitive, 
perception of Avhat was right, made him impatient of the 
errors and severe upon the follies of others. Sometimes he 
was hasty in judgment and rash in speech ; but when brought 
to see that he had Avronged another, he always had the ho- 
nesty to confess it. To that fact I could probably summon 
witnesses as numerous as the real offenses. 

He had great firmness and decision of character. These 
qualities he much admired in others. Oliver Cromwell, as 
he appears in liis own letters and speeches, collected by 
Carlyle, was a great favorite with him. He admired the 
blunt honesty, the manly decision, the devotion to principle 
60 conspicuous in the plain Huntingdon farmer, who became 
Lord Protector of the Commonwealth ; and he seemed to 
feel as he gazed upon the rugged, earnest, honest face of the 
old Puritan general, that he had found a man after his 
o-\vn heart. 

Mr. Hale's conclusions upon moral subjects seemed at 
times to be formed intuitively. Especially was this true 
where great principles were involved. There were certain 
principles of moral science, ecclesiastical polity, and politi- 
cal economy, which he had weighed and settled. Some of 



II 



self-control: church debates. 123 

these were original in the sense of having been thought out 
by and for liiniself ; all of them had been made his own by 
being subjected to the rigid analysis of his own mind. His 
principles were fixed , and he usually made up his mind 
promptly and decidedly ; and when his mind was made up in 
view of truth and duty, who or what could change him 1 Op- 
position could not turn him ; neither obloquy nor entreaty 
could induce him to retract. And yet with all this decision 
and firmness, which, in the view of some, amounted even to ob- 
stinacy, there was one principle to which, as a Congregation- 
al ist, he faithfully adhered ; and that was, always to yield to 
the dccisio7i of the majority. This he invariably did with good 
grace. He never attempted to form a party in the church, 
or to make others uncomfortable by constant irritation. I 
have seen him laugh heartily at being con(i[uered in a fair de- 
bate. He could not be driven from his principles, but he 
would cease to drive them, when he found that the case was 
fairly decided against him. Hence he made no difficulty in 
the church. In the present Tabernacle Church, he had no 
occasion to contend for the right of speech, and he respected 
the rights of others. In debate he was always calm and 
clieerful. That perfect self-control which enabled him when 
assaulted in the Exchange to refrain from blows or anger, 
and when spit upon by an excited politician, on board a 
steamboat, calmly to Avipe his face Avith his handkerchief, 
remarking only that it was "a dirty trick," — that complete 
self-possession to which he had attained, made him at once 
a formidable and an agreeable opponent in an argument. 
He would not betray anger in debate even under strong 
provocation, but would endeavor to allay excitement in 
others ; and even when he found that his own views were 
likely to prevail, if the minority was large, and the proposed 
measure likely to produce ill feeling, he would not press it 
to a decision, but would ask a postponement for the sake of 
friendly conference, or would endeavor to harmonize the par- 



124 



MEMOIR 



ties on some common basis. His influence on the church in 
this respect was eminently happy. 

This dignified self-control gained for him an influence in 
those pubhc bodies, ecclesiastical councils, conventions, &c., 
in which he sometimes took a part. In 1846 ho was a 
member of the Congregational Convention at Michigan City, 
where he greatly distinguished himself by his spirit and ad- 
dresses. A prominent member of that body thus speaks of 
the appearance of Mr. Halo in the convention, and the in- 
fluence which he acquired over it : 

" I doubt whether he ever in so short a time did more for tlic 
cause of truth, than while at Michigan City. But for liim, that con- 
vention would, I think, have adjourned witliout taking that decided 
action against the ' Plan of Union,' which has so essentially bene- 
fited the denomination at the West, and which has since been in- 
dorsed at the East. The committee appointed to report on that 
subject recommended only a modification of the Plan, and exert- 
ed themselves to procure the adoption of their report. Mr. Hale 
took the lead in opposing the 7)wdiJication, and boldly maintained 
that the Plan sh.ould be abrogated. At first his views seemed nitra 
to many of us. We were not prepared to go so far. But his 
quick discernment and ready wit, his strong arguments and apposite 
illustrations, were too much for the committee, (of whom I was 
one and contended for a modification,) and the brethren were 
led almost mianimously into his views before we separated. He 
was added to the committee, and wrote the latter part of the re- 
port which was finally adopted unanimously. There were other 
subjects that came before the convention for discussion, whose in- 
troduction he strongly opposed, and because of that opposition, 
some of our good brethren formed a very erroneous opinion of 
him, and one of them, in his zeal, administered a personal rebuke 
to Mr. Hale, by name. He received it without anger, and re- 
plied in a kind though decided manner, which won the hearts of 
all. So rapidly did the influence of Mr. Hale increase toward 
the close of the convention, that one of the officers remarked to 
me, ' If the convention had continued two days longer, Mr. Hale 
would have had the whole control of it.' As we were returning 
from Michigan City, one of the brethren who had at first been 
prejudiced against Mr. Hale, because of his manner, speaking of 
him, said, ' He has a noble soul after all. I watched his coun- 
tenance Avhile Brother — was preaching, and observed that 

it was often bathed in tears.' " 



ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN: SOCIAL HABITS. 125 

Mr. Hale endeared himself greatly to the young men 
of the church. He took a lively interest in their welfare ; 
was ahvays ready to counsel and aid them in their tempo- 
ral affairs, and endeavored to train them to habits of self- 
reliance, perseverance and Christian activity. The follow- 
ing skeleton of an address to the young men of the church, 
found among his papers, will show what in his view were the 
most important elements of character, and may convey use- 
ful hints to that class of readers : 

Be eminent in holiness. 

For this you must study tlie truth. 

Must keep your mind at peace ; in business ; in politics ; in the 

church. 
Be enmicntly useful. 

Fill your mind with elementary knowledge. 
Be independent in opinions. 
Be a leadei' ; but not ambitious. 
Select particular objects. 
Be steadily laborious. 
Be submissive. 
You Jiave enlisted for life. 
Be consistent. 

It was quite an object also with Mr. Hale to cultivate 
social feeling in the church. His New Year's calls were al- 
most exclusively upon the members of the Broadway Taber- 
nacle Church, not excepting the poorest. He preferred to 
keep up an acquaintance with his brethren and sisters in 
Christ, rather than with the great, the wealthy, the titled, to 
Avhose society he might have had access. He took great de- 
light in having social assemblies of the church at his own 
house. On such occasions he made all happy by his cheer- 
fulness and his generous hospitality. His appearance and 
manners made him pleasingly conspicuous in the social cir- 
cle. In person, he was tall — more than six feet in hight, 
and well proportioned, though of rather a spare habit, and 
he stood or walked erect ; his forehead was high and stamp- 
ed with thought ; his hair, which he wore brushed back from 



126 MEMOIR. 

tlie forehead, was tliin and prematurely gray ; his counte- 
nance "was naturally stern, but easily relaxed into a smile ; 
his voice deep and guttural, but easily softened by emotion. 
His conversation was sprightly, and his hearty laugh would 
often ring out at the pithy anecdote or the pointed satire. 
He possessed a rare amount of bo7ihommie, good-nature, 
which overflowed in company, and made everybody cheer- 
ful. He was a lover of hospitality, and a lover of good men ; 
and when, as was sometimes the case, his guests consisted 
principally of clergymen and other professional gentlemen, 
he did the honors of the house and table with an ease and 
grace, and participated in their discussions with an interest 
and abilit}', which never failed to elicit their admiration 
and respect. A New England minister having once listened 
to his table-talk, exclaimed, ^' Why, David Hale is a philo- 
sopher !" 

Yet it was the impression of many — especially of those 
who were in the habit of interrupting him at his oflice with 
trifling questions, when he was engaged in making out a 
price-current, or writing an important article — that he was 
seriously deficient in the softer traits of character. It is 
true that these were not so prominent as others of a sterner 
mold, and his character upon the whole was not so genial as 
that of Henry Martyn or of James Brainerd Taylor. He had 
in his composition more of Peter than of Jo/in. He lived 
more in the stern and stormy walks of duty than in the fra- 
grant bowers of love. Of late years, however, the sterner 
features of his character were softened, or were rendered less 
prominent, by the filling out of those of finer texture. But 
his deficiency in this respect was by no means so great as 
they supposed who met him only in the rougher walks of life. 
That man knew little of David Hale who did not know him 
to be possessed of most refined sensibilities. When I had a 
touching incident to narrate, or a pathetic appeal to make, I 
knew that he would be the first man to be moved to tears. 



TENDERNESS OF HEART. 127 

The heroic and the tender are often thus intimately blend- 
ed. Luther had great tenderness of heart and was often 
moved to tears like a child. John Knox when first called upon 
by his brethren to speak in behalf of the truth burst into 
tears and hid himself; yet he could throw overboard from 
the galley which was bearing him as a prisoner, the image of 
the Virgin which he was commanded to kiss, saying it was 
nothing but painted wood, and could confront monarchs as a 
witness for Christ. Washington Avent alone to weep and 
pray at Valley Forge. Men of tlic sternest mold often havo 
beating under their scarred and rugged breasts a heart as 
delicate and sensitive as that of woman. Those who were 
accustomed to meet Mr. Hale in the social prayer-meeting 
learned that he had a tender lieart. His prayers evinced a 
child-like spirit, full of submission and trust in God. His 
exhortations were those of simple, earnest, aftcctionate piety. 
Never shall I forget their impression. Would that I had 
tliem preserved in writing as they fell from his lips. In 
particular, I now remember one, which, like his happiest 
efforts in this way, was purely spontaneous. The hymn was 
read commencing with the words — 

"Come let us join our sonp;s of praise 
To our ascended Priest ; 
He entered heaven with aU our names 
Engraven on his breast." 

After the singing, Mr. Hale rose in liis place and said : 
" Brethren, let us look a little at the sentiment of this hymn. 
Is it true ? Have we thought what it means ? Has Christ 
entered heaven with all our names engraven on his breast 1 

Is David Hale written there ? Is , and , written 

tliere ? Does Christ know us individually, and present us 
to his Father name by name?" 

The effect was overpowering. The sincere Christian re- 
alized his union with his Savior as he had never felt it 
before. 



128 MEMOIR. 

On another occasion, when he was to conduct the meeting, 
he came in hurriedly and took his scat, remarking that he had 
been so full of business through the day, that he had had no 
time to prepare for the meeting, not even to select a hymn ; 
" but here is one," said he, opening the book, " that ought 
to put us in a right frame." He then read the hymn of 
Montgomery, beginning, " Forever with the Lord," and as 
he read his soul kindled with the theme, till he expatiated 
most eloquently on the blessed hope of the Christian : 

" Here in the body pent, 

Absent from tliee I roam ; 
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent 
A day's march nearer home. . 

" So when my latest breath 
Shall rend the vail in twain, 
By death 1 shall escape I'roni death, 
And life eternal gain. 

" Knowing as I am known. 

How shall I love that word; 
And oft repeat before the throne, — 
' Forever with the Lord.' " 

" Yes," said he, with emphasis, " Forever with the Lord. 
No cares, no vexations, no hurry, no business, nothing to 
draw ofi" our minds from Christ, nothing to fill our minds but 
Christ. What a blessed relief after being pent up so long 
in this poor body !" 

That was the last time that Mr. Hale officiated as the 
leader of our prayer-meeting ; both the substt/nce and the 
manner of his exhortation arc vividly remembered by many 
who were present. He seemed to pass at once from the 
bustle of the world into communion with Christ, into the at- 
mosphere of heaven. About that time indeed, his mind ap- 
peared to be drawn more and more towards the contempla- 
tion of death, and of the heavenly world. This was not 
owing to any physical infirmity, or to anything which might 



LAST LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 129 

awaken the thought that his own end was near ; it was one 
of the leadings of the divine Spirit to prepare him for that 
end. In a letter to his venerable mother, who was threat- 
ened with the last and fatal stroke of apoplexy, he unfolds 
fully his own feelings in view of death : 

New YorJc, March 9, 1848. 
Mr Dear Mother — 

I learn by a letter from David that you had quite a bad faint- 
ing turn on Tuesday. I hope that on such occasions you will be 
able to say and feel as Paul did wlien he was old, that though 
our earthly liouse of this tabernacle perish, we have a building of 
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It 
is a source of inexpressible comfort to me, that you have been 
spared until your once little son has become an old gray-headed 
man himself. We have had a long journey together on earth, 
and been blessed with much enjoyment in each other. But we 
grow old, and there is no way to renew our youth but to pass 
into another world, wliere we may hope to be always vigorous 
and young. What should we do but for the revelations which 
Christ has made to us — his expressions of love and confidence ? 
Fear not, I am with thee ; I will never leave nor forsake thee ; I 
am the resurrection and the life. Whether living or dying we 
may be in His care, who is faithful beyond all other faithfulness. 
He came to save sinners, too, so that if we but trust Him, there 
is nothing for which He will not provide. An interest in Him is 
all that short-lived creatures like us need, Oh, if we can but cast 
ourselves afl'ectionately on His arm, how firmly it will sustain 
us ! You can trust Him, mother, for you have long endeavored 
to do so. One of our newspapers this afternoon, speaking of Mr. 
Adams, spoke of the abuse he had received, and the softening in- 
fluence of old age upon public feeling. When he went West, 
said the editor, the people took him in their arms and carried 
him from place to place. This was not literally so, but in spiiit 
it was, and I thought the idea was beautiful. How happy then 
may we feel to know that when we are old and gray-headed, God 
will not forsake us, but when we faint will put under us His arms, 
and carry us to the mansions of rest. It is good to be in God's 
hands : how good we should always feel it to be, did we not love 
this fleeting world too much ! 

But I intend to come and see you on Tuesday morning, and 
express to you, personally, how much I love my mother, and how 
thankful I am that you have been preserved so long in comfort of 



180 M K M O I R . 

body and mind. It is very conifortinfj to nio, tlmt (ho children 
>vlu) iiro around you [his own olul(h(>n with whom she was] 
■will continuo to bo earnest in their attention to supply all your 
■wants, and I hope I may yet see you mimy times as 1 have done. 
Hut I know it is not liki'ly that w^o shall sec each other many 
times more on earth. If you depart before me it cannot be long 
before 1 shall follow you. Oh, that we may meet in the mansions 
■which (Christ has {)repared for His people in the temple above. 
It will be to go no more out from the glory of the Lord forever. 
The family all send tbeir ardent love, and I shall hope to sec 
you on Wednesday at farthest. 

Your affectionate son. 

DAVID IIALE. 

This letter is a model of filial aflfeetioii and Christian 
faith. Thus did he discharge every duty in the family, in 
the church, in society, promptly, afteetionatcly, cheerfully, 
conscientiously, fdling up his days with usefulness, yet ever 
looking above and beyond this world for his rest and his re- 
ward. 'I'hc current of life, which had often been so turbu- 
lent, and which had exposed him to so many dangers, and 
compelled him to so many struggles, was now flowing smooth- 
ly on amid scenes of verdure and gladness. His age had 
not yet passed into the sore ai.nd yellow leaf. " His eye was 
not dim, nor his natural force abated.'' He liad a good 
prosjxH't of many days. 

But the intense and unceasing activity of his brain worc^ out 
the springs of life. In a moment those springs snapped, and 
he, so athletic and vigorous, became helpless as a child ; 
he, so lively and active of mind, became dull, incoherent, 
Unconscious. This was on the morning of tlie Sa.b!)ath, Juno 
11th, 1848. He had risen apparently Avell, had taken a 
batli, and was completing his toilet, when he suddenly called 
to his companion that he was ill and felt as if he was about 
to die. Being conducted to a divan, he became almost im- 
mediately insensible. IMedical aid was summoned, and tho 
most active measures were taken to restore consciousness, 



LAST SICKNESS. 131 

but ho remained in a comatose state tlie greater part of the 
day. Had he died then, without one word as to his personal 
feelings, we could have entertained no doubt of his safety 
in and through Christ ; but wo should have lost many pre- 
cious tokens of comfort and hope which now remain to us. 
But it pleased God to suspend the blow. For a long time 
however he seemed to hang between life and death. A pain- 
ful, uneasy sensation in the head deprived him of siglit and 
confused his thoughts. Once he started as from a dream, 
and exclaimed that he had just discovered that he was David 
Hale, having been long perplexed about his identity. He 
was raised gradually from this state of extreme mental and 
physical prostration, and was enabled to see his friends, 
to converse intelligently, to dictate an occasional letter, 
and to journey for the improvement of his health, though lie 
continued much enfeebled in body, and was incapable of his 
usual mental exertion. In the course of the summer he 
visited his friends m Connecticut and Massachusetts, and 
seemed decidedly benefited by the tour. On returning to 
New York in the fall, he went almost every day to his office, 
though without attending to business ; but the excitement of 
the city was too much for him in his weak and nervous state, 
and his physician recommended him to take another journey 
or a sea voyage. Ho left New York on the *7th of November, 
having first deposited his vote for President — accompanied by 
his devoted wife, who had been with him unceasingly from the 
first moment of his attack, and whose experience in sickness, 
united with a rare degree of fortitude and cheerfulness, ren- 
dered her fully co-mpetent for this important trust. His in- 
tention was to visit Cincinnati, and as winter approached to 
journey southward as far as New Orleans, and possibly to sail 
thence to Cuba. But finding himself unable to endure the 
fatigue of the tour which he had undertaken, he retraced his 
course to Philadelphia, and thence proceeded to Wasliington. 



182 MEMOIR. 

The providence of God directed him to Fredericksburg, 
Va., Avhere his journey was arrested by increasing debility. 
Dropsical symptoms supervened, and his ultimate recovery 
became more and more doubtful. At length, an attack of 
influenza, whicli was epidemic in the place, terminated his 
sufferings, and happily delivered him from the protracted 
anguish of a death by the disease under which he labored. 
He died on the 20tli January, 1849. With occasional ex- 
ceptions he retained his consciousness to the last. When 
that consciousness returned after his first attack, it was evi- 
dent that he was clinging to life. Both his constitution and 
his Avill struggled hard against his disease. He had so many 
plans, so many hopes, was so full of business, that he could 
scarcely be reconciled to the thought of death. He was par- 
ticularly interested in the establishment of a religious news- 
paper in NcAV York, to be conducted in a liberal and inde- 
pendent spirit ; and he expressed his gratification that others 
had begun an enterprise Avhich he had so long contemplated, 
but could not hope to accomplish. But by degrees his feel- 
ings underwent a change, and it was pleasing to observe how 
calmly he relinquished his hold upon the world, and resigned 
himself to the will of God. 

Doubts and fears he had at times ; — not doubts respecting 
the way of salvation, the fullness of Christ, the promises of 
God — but doubts respecting himself, resulting from his habit 
of close self-scrutiny, and his nice discrimination of his own 
mental states. He would sometimes sigh to find God as a 
near and present fi-iend. Yet even these occasional doubts, 
and his caution in speaking of his own hope, were a com- 
forting sign that his reason was unclouded, that his judg- 
ment of himself was to be relied upon, and that his con- 
fidence in Jesus, to whom he peacefully conuuitted himself at 
the last, was not mistaken. 

Those who understood his natural temperament and 



DEATH -BED SCENE. 133 

were conversant witli his religious life, would not look for 
anything ecstatic in his last hours. Yet one who was much 
with him testifies that "there were times when he might 
have yielded to the floods of emotion, — ^grateful and happy af- 
fections which commenced to issue from his heart, and might, 
if unrestrained, have suddenly broken down the banks of clay 
and borne him with a rush of rapture into the other world ; 
but reason always stopped the outlet before the current of 
emotion became uncontrollable." But we shall best learn 
his state from his own expressions. At one time he said, " It 
would take so little to carry me to the arms of Jesus, that I 
am sorry to wait — yet I shall perhaps find tliat I have mis- 
taken the way — such a sea of troubles as I have to go 
through." On another occasion he spoke nearly as follows : 
" God is my portion, and T am sincerely desirous that his go- 
vernment should bo maintained in all things. It is strange 
in how short a time I have become reconciled to death, and, 
indeed, perhaps I am not yet reconciled. I thought that if 
ten or fifteen years could be added to my life, it would be ex- 
ceedingly desirable. But my work is done, I have only odds 
and ends to finish of the things I have begun, yet I would 
liave liked to remain in the world some time longer, and 
managed its affairs as well as I could ; but now I think I am 
sincerely reconciled to bear it, and let God do as lie will." 
In particular his interest in prayer increased. On one occa- 
sion, towards the close of his sickness, when a prayer was 
offered ending with the words " and we will praise the 
Fa,ther, Son and Holy Ghost forever ;" he broke out with 
emphasis, " So we will ; so we will ! Yes, we will praise 
them — we will praise them — forever and ever !" He sent 
his love to all the Tabernacle Church — to its pastor and to 
several members by name, and in his wandering thoughts 
desired to be " dated" from the Tabernacle. When asked 
if he was reconciled to lingering sickness, should that be 



134 MEMOIR. 

God's -will, he answered, " Yes ; I think I am sincerely re- 
conciled to God's will, whatever it be ; but I have my pre- 
ferences, and should prefer a speedy death. My work is 
finished. I am satisfied that for the most part I have done my 
duty, not boastfully, but humbly, as a man ought to do it." 
Toward the last, death appeared to him more and more de- 
sirable ; his childlike trust in the Savior increased, and he 
could say with the dying Stephen, " Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit." His last message to his children Avas, " Tell them 
to trust in Jesus, as I hope I do." Thus gently he passed 
away. 

" His was the upright deed, 
His the unswevvino; course. 
'Mid every thwarting current's force, 
Unchanged hy venal aim, or flattery's hollow reed : 
The Holy Truth walked ever by his side, 
And in his bosom dwelt, companion, judge and guide. 
But when disease revealed 
To his unclouded eye 
The stern destroyer standing nigh. 
Where turned he for a shield 1 
Wrapt he the robe of stainless rectitude 
Around his heart to meet cold Jordan's flood ? 
Grasped he the start' of pride, 
His steps through death's dark vale to guide 1 
Ah, no ! self-righteousness he cast aside ; 
Clasping with firm and fearless faith the cross of Him who 

died ; — Serene, Seuene, 
He passed the crumbling verge of this terrestrial scene, 
Breathed soft, in childlike trust, 
The parting groan. 
Gave back to dust ita dust, 
To Heaven its owiiy 

" And I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me. Write, 
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- 
forth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors ; and their works do follow them." 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 135 

The remains of Mr. Hale were brought to New York, 
where they arrived on the 23d of January ; the funeral took 
place on the 25th. The day was unpleasant, and the hour 
inconvenient for men of business ; but a large concourse of 
persons were in attendance. The remains were interred in 
Greenwood Cemetery. The following account of the fune- 
ral services is from the Journal of Commerce of the suc- 
ceeding day : 

Funeral of Mr. Hale. — " The remains of our late friend and 
partner, David Hale, were yesterday deposited in their last rest- 
ing-place, — * earth to earth and dust to dust.' 

"At 12 o'clock, noon, the invited friends and relatives of the 
deceased convened at his late residence in Murray street, Avhere 
an appropriate prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Thompson, pastor 
of the Tabernacle Church, of which Mr. Hale was a member. A 
procession was then formed, and moved on foot from the house 
to the. Tabernacle. At the Tabernacle, which was nearly filled 
with spectators and friends, numbering, probably, 1500 or up- 
wards, the services were introduced with a few impressive re- 
marks by the pastor, after which, prayer was offered by Rev. Dr, 
Patton. The hymn commencing, ' Friend after friend departs,' 
was then sung by the choir, and select passages of Scripture were 
read by the pastor. Next, a thrilling address was made by Rev. 
Henry W. Beecher, of Brooklyn, in which he alluded to the re- 
ligious character of the deceased, his eminent usefulness, and his 
peaceful exit. To those who had access to the secret chambers 
of his soul, it was manifest, said the speaker, that Mr. Hale's high- 
est interest Avas above. He (Mr. Beecher) had seen the tears 
trickle down his naturally stern features, on hearing of some new 
triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom. His heart was tender on 
such subjects, and his hand was ever open to promote the cause 
he loved. When death approached, he was not appalled, but 
* trusting in Jesus,' (to use his own expression,) he bade the 
message welcome. When such men die, the speaker could not 
mourn, but must exult and triumph. Tliey had accomplished the 
great object of life, and were now free from its temptations and 
infirmities. Of all the persons in that house, he (pointing to the 
corpse beneath the pulpit) is the wisest, the happiest, and the 
holiest. " 

" Mr. Beecher was followed by Rev. Dr, Lansing of Brooklyn, in 
an address to the throne of grace. The hymn, ' Hear what fJhe 



136 TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 

voice from Heaven proclaims For all the pious dead,' was then sung, 
and, -with the benediction, closed the public services. The whole 
scene was deeply interesting and impressive ; and not least the 
readiness with which several hundred persons embraced the op- 
portunity aft'orded at the close of the exercises, of passing succes- 
sively near the corpse, and taking a last look of a coimtenance 
which to most of them was familiar. " 

" From the Tabernacle, the procession moved in carriages, about 
thirty in number, to the Biooklyn South Ferry, and thence lo 
Greenwood Cemetery, where the body was interred." 

On the following Sabbath morning (Januaiy 28tli), a dis- 
course upon the life and character of Mr. Hale was deliver- 
ed at the Tabernacle by the pastor of the church, to an im- 
mense audience who testified their interest in the occasion 
by a solemn and tearful silence. This discourse was pub- 
lished in the Journal of Commerce y the Tribune ^ and the 
Independent. 

TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 

The following tribute to the memory of Mr. Hale, from 
the pen of his surviving partner, Gerard Hallock, Esq., is 
given entire, though some of its statements have been anti- 
cipated. 

The Late David Hale. — Mr. Hale was born at Lisbon, 
Conn., on the 25th of April, l^Ol, and died on the 20th of Ja- 
nuary, 1849, in the 58th year of his age. His father was a cler- 
gyman and teacher of youth. 

When David Avas eleven years old, the family removed from 
Lisbon to South Coventry, Conn. 

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, he went to Boston in search 
of employment, and engaged as clerk in a jobbing house in State 
street. After various changes and disappointments, Avhich it is 
not necessary here to mention, he went into business on his own 
account. In the mean time he had experienced religion under the 
preaching of Rev. Dr. Griffin, and united with Park-street 
Church. 

The writer first became acquainted with him in 1823. He was 
then an active member of Essex-street Church, having been de- 
signated, with others from Park-street and the Old South, (the 
only orthodox Congregational churches of any magnitude then 



TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK- 187 

existing in Boston,) to form a nucleus for the new enterprise. 
There was plenty of work to be done, — for the whole current of 
popular influence was against them. A congregation was to be 
collected ; Sabbath-schools were to be gathered and instructed ; 
religious meetings were to be held, in the conference room and 
in private houses ; and a multitude of benevolent enterprises, yet 
in their infancy, presented strong claims for aid. In all these 
things, Mr. Hale was among the most prominent and active mem- 
bers. He was then thirty-two years of age. The writer once 
asked him how long he intended to be a teacher in the Sabbath- 
schoo! ; his reply was, that he " had enlisted during the war." It 
was a pithy remark, and has since been verified by twenty-five 
years experience. Amidst the various distractions of business, 
during this long period, he always found time to devote to his 
Master's service. If he had money, tltat was freely laid on the 
same altar. He has often remarked to the writer, that the most 
he wanted money for was to give it away. His practice has cor- 
responded with his preaching. He haa given nearly all his avail- 
able earnings ; nay, has often anticipated them, for the promotion 
of benevolent objects. When he v/as a merchant, in moderate 
business, and with but little capital, he gave only hundreds ; but 
when, in later years, his income was thousands, he gave thou- 
sands, and in the aggregate, tens of thousands. His connection 
with the Journal of Commerce was doubly agreeable to him, be- 
cause it gave him a two-fold power of doing good : first, by the 
moral, social, and political influence of the paper itself, and se- 
condly, by the pecuniary emolument which it yielded. 

The circumstances which brought himself and the writer into 
connection with each other, as joint editors and proprietors of this 
paper, are a Uttle remarkable. As I said before, (if for conve- 
nience' sake the reader will allow me to use the first person sin- 
gular,) I became acquainted with him in Boston in 1823. He 
was then in prosperous business as a merchant ; I was a stranger, 
comparatively very young, without pecuniary resources, yet re- 
solved, if a few hundred dollars could be loaned me, to establish 
a weekly paper there, for which there appeared to be an opening. 
Scarcely had I made known my object, plan, and wants, when 
the money was handed me by David Hale, who had collected it 
from a few friends, himself included, with the condition that I 
should " return it when convenient." In a little more than a year 
I did return it, with interest. 

Before 1827, a change had come over us both. Mr. Hale had 
yielded to the storm of 1825. He had removed to New York, and 
become editor and half proprietor of the New York Observer. 
When Arthur Tappan, — then a prince in liberality, and now more 



138 TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 

than a prince in benevolent aspirations, though his means are less, 
— determined to establish the Journal of Commerce, I lost no time 
in recommending Mr. Hale for the commercial and business de- 
partment, and had the satisfaction to see the recommendation car- 
ried into effect. At the very commencement of the paper, Sep- 
tember 1, 182Y, Mr. Hale was on hand, and entered upon his 
duties. But neither he nor I foresaw the difficulties he would 
have to contend with, nor the embarrassments, of various kinds, 
which would im])ede the success of the enterprise. Mr. Tappan 
himself became discouraged, — not so much on account of the 
money he had expended, (though the amount was large,) as be- 
cause it seemed impossible, with any amount of money, to make 
the paper what it ought to be. In this state of things, Mr. 
Lewis Tappan called at my office one day, and told rrtc that his 
brother had determined to discontinue the paper next week, unless 
it could be placed on a difl-erent footing. [This was near the 
close of 1828, the paper having been in existence about sixteen 
months.] He at the same time presented me certain propositions 
which contemplated the conditional purchase of the establishment 
by Mr. Hale and myself jointly, and then retired, saying, " Upon 
you, sir, I throw the responsibility of deciding whether the Journal 
of Commerce shall be discontinued, or not ;" or to that effect. The 
appeal was a strong one, — especially to me, who had taken 
much interest in the success of the enterprise, though I had not 
entertained the remotest idea of being personally connected with 
it ; and, although pleasantly situated where I was, I decided, on 
reflection, to accept the overture, and the consequence has been, 
twenty years of unceasing toil, both to Mr. Hale and myself, and 
the establishment of the paper on a basis of permanent usefulness. 
In looking back upon the incidents above related, and many 
others which cannot be recorded here, the ordering of Providence 
is so clear that it would be a sin not to perceive and recognize it. 
Had I not known Mr. Hale intimately, (having been a member of 
his family in Boston more than a year,) and had we not mutually 
reposed the utmost confidence in each other, the connection would 
not have been formed, and tlie Journal of Commerce would long 
since have been among the things that were. I own that at this 
time I did not appreciate, nor fully know, the strength of his in- 
tellectual powers ; nor did either of us dream that he would ever 
take the stand which he has taken, as one of the ablest editors in 
the Union. I only expected to receive occasional aid from his 
pen, and that not of the highest order ; but in point of fact, Avhile 
he made his own (the commercial) department of the paper 
all that could be desired, he became a most efficient coadjutor 
in the editorial department proper. For vigor of conception, 



TRIBUTE or GERARD 11 ALLOC K. 139 

force of reasoning, and aptness of illustration, some of his articles 
would not suffer in comparison with the leading editorials of the 
London Times. Language he did not study, having had but a 
commoik school education in his youth, — yet by long practice, he 
acquired a facility of expression which many of the best scholars 
are not able to command. Thoughts he never lacked. They 
flowed faster than his pen could indite them. 

The prorain(;nt qualities of his mind were greatness, strength, 
quickness, and fertility. His conclusions were drawn suddenly, 
and, as it seemed, almost intuitively. His discernment of cha- 
racter was remarkable. lie had a rich vein of humor, which, in 
connection with his intellectual resources, gave to his conversation 
a j)eculiar interest. He was sometimes severe, both in manner 
and in judgment. With a temper naturally impetuous, and not 
entirely subdued by grace, he occasionally expressed himself 
harshly, not to say unadvisedly. But I know that he contended 
manfully against these infirmities, and sought to subdue them. 
I have several times heard him lament that he had not more of 
the meekness of wisdom. Once he told me that he had resolved 
to set a double guard at the door of his lips ; or to that eftcct. 
A bad man does not so repent and resolve. 

One of the agreeable traits of Mr. Hale's character was his 
perfect frankness. There was no guile about him. He was in- 
ca])able of it himself, and despised it in others. 

He had many warm fricinds, and some enemies. But, in gene- 
ral, those who knew him best loved liim most. His faults were, 
from their nature, uppermost ; while many of his excellencies 
were, from their nature, invisible to the public eye. A stranger, 
beholding his lofty, independent bearing, and hearing his gruff 
voice, would not have suspected that there beat within his breast 
a heart of warm affection, tender sensibility, and Christian chari- 
ty ; that he held daily communion with his Maker, and conscien- 
tiously sought to know and do His will. Yet so it was. After 
twenty-five years of intimate acquaintance with him, under a 
great variety of circumstances, I am convinced that so it was. 

The bold points of his character above indicated made him a 
mark for a greater amount of personal abuse than has fallen to 
the lot of any other editor within my knowledge. He was abus- 
ed, not only for his faults, and the faults of others, but for his 
virtues. Many an article or paragraph in our columns which he 
never saw or heard of until he saw it in print, has becm made the 
occasion of a fresh tirade of abuse towards himself personally 
and by name. Fortunately, such effusions gave him no uneasi- 
ness. If he read them at all, which latterly was not very com- 
mon, he generally accompanied the reading with a laugh, and the 
louder in proportion to the spitefulness of the attack. 



140 TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 

One incident, which aftbrded his assailants a "nut to crack" 
for a considerable time, was his suffering himself to be rattanned 
or cowhided (we forget which) on 'Change, by a little French- 
man. From this they inferred a lack of personal courage. Now 
the fact is, that ha\T:ng reason to expect the attack, he dehberately 
made up his mind beforehand, that being a professor of religion, 
and an elder in a Christian church, he would not be converted 
into a pugilist at the option of another ; and, in short, that he 
would make no resistance unless he should find he would other- 
wise be seriously injured. He very well knew that Avith one 
sweep of his long, sturdy arm, he could demolish his assailant. 
But he did not wish to hurt him, and was not much hurt by him. 
The paragraph which gave rise to the assault Avas not written by 
Mr. Hale, nor by me ; nor was it strictly personal. But let that 
pass. Is it not manifest, that to receive the infliction passively, 
under such circumstances, required a much higher degree of per- 
sonal control, than if he had followed the dictates of depraved 
nature ? On a subsequent occasion, when he expected a street 
assault from a powerful man, he said to me, " If attacked, I shall 
defend myself. I cannot afford to trifle with him, — he will hurt 
me too much." My own opinion is, that few individuals possess 
a higher degree either of personal or moral courage than did Mr. 
Hale ; and if I had wished to find a man who, at the call of duty, 
Avould perform the perilous feat attempted by his uncle. Captain 
Nathan Hale, in the Revolution, and then, like him, when about 
to be swung from the gallows, exclaim, " My only regret is, that 
I have but one life to give for ray countiy," I know not whom I 
should have selected sooner than the subject of this notice. 

One other topic I Avill mention, as it has given rise to more mis- 
representation and reproach than even the foregoing. I allude to 
Mr. Hale's purchase of the Broadway Tabernacle. This purchase 
was made in the year 1840. Property and credit were at the 
lowest ebb. Money was worth two per cent, a month. Rich men 
felt poor, and the poor men felt like beggars. In such a state of 
things it was announced that the Tabernacle was about to be sold 
imder a foreclosure. It had been occupied as a Presbyterian 
church, and a pure Gospel had been preached there. It was now 
liable to fall into the hands of errorists, of one kind or another, 
and in that case, instead of being what it had been, and was in- 
tended to be, it would become a grand center of mischief. Va- 
rious eftbrts were made among the good people of the Presbyte- 
rian denomination to raise the necessary funds, but without suc- 
cess. At length David Hale came to me, and inquii-cd if I had 
any objection to his buying the Tabernacle. I was astounded at 
the suggestion, knowing that he really had no money to spai-e, 



TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 141 

and that all the receipts of the firm would be required for a con- 
siderable time for the payment of debts ; yet I gave my consent. 
I however remarked to him that his motives would be miscon- 
strued, — that it would be said he was speculating in churches, 
and all that, — and I would advise him, on the spot, to place the 
matter in such a shape that under no circumstances could he re- 
alize more than seven per cent, on the money invested. He ap- 
proved of my suggestion, and governed himself accordingly. He 
might have made -^15,000 or $20,000 out of the transaction, and 
he fully believed so at the time ; but instead of this, he raised 
money wherever he could obtain it, either from his own resources, 
the good will of personal friends, or the friends of the cause, and 
then loaned it to the society at seven per cent. Such was the 
effect of the operation, though in form he was the purchaser and 
owner of the property. But this is not all. For several years 
after the purchase, he had the sole management of the building, 
renting it from day to day, and evening to evening, as be had op- 
portunity, for public purposes, receiving pay for the same, and in 
various ways expending time and labor about it, — for no part of 
which has he ever received or desired to receive a single cent for 
his own benefit. Every dollar realized from such meetings, or 
froni the building in any v^ay, has been applied toward the ex- 
tinction of indebtedness upon the property, the payment of inter- 
est, &c. The result of the matter is, that a considerable portion 
of the cost of the edifice has been extinguished by its own earn- 
ings. It is now the property of the society worshiping in it, at 
a cost not equal to half its value ; and the only pecuniary advan- 
tage that Mr. Hale has ever derived from it, is, that he has been 
largely out of pocket on account of the purchase, and still is, to 
the extent of 84000 or $5000, which, however, we understand, is 
about to be paid to his heirs. 

Take it all in all, the purchase of the Tabernacle ought to be 
regarded as the crowning act of his life. For not only was it one 
of the most liberal acts (considering the pecuniary circumstances 
of the purchaser at that time) to be found in the annals of bene- 
volence, but it was a "parent act, of which the offspring have al- 
ready risen, in goodly numbers, both in this city and Brooklyn. 
Since the purchase of the Tabernacle, and by "a process easily 
traced back to that event, not less than ten or eleven Congrega- 
tional churches have been organized in the two cities, most of 
Avhich are large and flourishing, and provided with pastors of dis- 
itinguished talents and piety. The pecuniary contributions of Mr. 
Hale in aid of these various enterprises are thus stated in the new 
Congregational paper, the Indeinndent, of the present week. [See 
Appendix F.] 



142 TRIBUTE OF GERARD HALLOCK. 

The Late David Hale.— As we were unable in a single day, 
amidst niaiiv interruptions, to say all that we desii^ned to say ni 
ro-vard to the character ami life of our deceased tnend and part- 
ner, it was our intention to add a supplementary article m a future 
number But the points in reserve, or most of them, have been 
so liappilv touched upon by his pastor. Rev. J. P. Thompson, m 
the funeral discourse since published in ovu- columns, that we 
deem it unnecessary to go over the o-round agam. We nviU how- 
ever add a few words in regard to Mr. Hale's sickness and death. 

Until about a year since, his health was remarkably good 
His business, as well as his inclination, required him to take a good 
deal of exercise, which kept his system healthful and vigorous. 
It was a pleasure to see the youthful energy with which lie 
moved. Early last spring, he began to complain ot not feeling as 
well as usual, and took an excursion or two, in the hojie of re- 
o-ainin<^ his accustomed energy, but without success. Nothing 
serious was apprehended, however, until Sunday morning, the 
11th of June, when in his own house he was suddenly attacked 
with conoestion of the brain, or a kind of apoplexy. When the 
shock tirs^t came on, he remarked to his companion that he did not 
know what was the matter with him, but that be telt as if he were 
dvin.>- He partly fell and partly was assisted upon the sofa, and 
became immediately helpless and insensible. In this condition he 
remained for several hours, notwithstanding the ellorts of skiUtul 
physicians to restore him. It was at this time doubttul whether he 
would live through the day. Toward night, however, he experien- 
ced some relief, and in the course of a day or two the physicians pro- 
nounced him out of immediate danger. In two or three weeks, 
he was able to sit up some, and in about two months, he could 
walk a short distance out of doors. He was, however, still very 
feeble, both in body and mind. The shock to the latter was al- 
most as great as to the former. Even after he became rational, 
there was still a blur over his mind, which made lum unconscious 
of his own identity. Or rather, he did not know who he was. One 
day, about three weeks after the attack, he remarked with much 
apparent satisfaction, that he had just found out that he was 
David Hale ! In August he had so far recovered, that his physi- 
cians advised him to^ journey a little, taking care not to overdo, 
and accordingly he spent a month or two in Connecticut and 
other parts of New England, going as far north as New Hamp- 
shire Durin.1- this absence he wrote two or three short letters, 
which were published in our columns. Although possessing 
some of the usual characteristics of his writings, they evinced but 
too plainly that he was not what he had been. With these ex- 



TRIBUTE OF GERARD HAL LOCK. 143 

coplions, nothing from his pen has appeared in our columns since 
the lull of June. He returned to New York in October, 
and after remaining here two or three weeks, during which he 
did not gain strength as fast as was expected, he started for the 
South, intending to go down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Or- 
leans, and hoping to return in good health next spring. In all 
these journeys, and subsequently to the moment of his death, he 
was attended by his faithful wife, whose care and watchings were 
never intermitted, when they could be made available to his com- 
fort. On their arrival at llarrisburgh, the weather was cold, and 
it was feared that the canal would be frozen before they could 
reach Pittsburgh. 'J'his and other considerations induced them 
to return to Philadelphia, whence they proceeded to Washington 
City. Mr. Hale did not bear the journey well, cither from New 
York to Harrisburgh, or from Harrisburgh to Washington ; and 
on his arrival at the latter place, was obliged to stop several days 
to recruit. It now became a ([uesiion whether he sliould go far- 
ther away from home, or return. Many fears were entertained, 
that, if he went to the far South, as he had contemplated, it would 
be only to die there. He at length decided to go forward, and 
with some difficulty reached Fredericksburgii, Virginia, stopping 
at a most excellent public house, and withal a temperance estab- 
lishment, called " The Exchange." Both he and his friends after- 
wards thought it a most providential circumstance that he should 
have " brought up" at exactly the place of all places, except his 
own home, where he would have wished to be, and they to have 
him, had they known that it was to be the scene of his last sick- 
ness and death. The most kind and delicate attentions were prof- 
fered him and his family, V>y the keepers of the house and its 
guests, and by many other inhabitants of Fredericksburgh, (among 
whom ought especially to be mentioned his devoted and eminently 
skillful physician, Dr. Welford,) who, though strangers to him per- 
sonally, yet knowing his character and usefulness, vied with each 
other in manifestations of kindness and sympathy, and the only 
measure of their attentions was a discreet regard to the limit 
where, in a case of sickness and sorrow, even kindness becomes a 
burden. Mr. Hale, while living, and those members of his family 
who were with him in his .sickness, felt, and the survivors still 
feel, that both the measure and character of the attentions be- 
stowed upon him and them by the people of Fredericksburgh 
were such as could only proceed from the most benevolent hearts, 
united witii the mo.st delicate sense of fitness and propriety, it 
is pleasant to reflect in this connection, that Mr. Hale was always 
a friend to the South as well as the North, and that on all proper 
occasions he rebuked that reckless, fanatical spirit which heeds 



144 T n I n IT T E or g e r a r d h a l l o c k . 

not results — no, not tlie Union itself, — if only the " one idea" can 
be urged to its consummation. 

His religious feelings in the prospect of death were such as 
might be expected from a man who had so long cherished the 
Christian's hope. Although at first he desired to live longer, for 
several reasons, yet he afterwards became entirely willing and 
even desirous to die. He knew in whom he had believed. Two or 
three days before his death, being asked by his companion if he 
wished to send any message to his friends in New York, as she 
was about writing to them, he said, "Tell them all to put their 
trust in Christ, as I hope I do." 

Having remarked on a fornu^r occasion that Mr. Hale gave 
away nearly all his a\"ailable earnings, it may be proper to add 
that his interest in the Journal of Cotnincrcc is alone a handsome 
property, and that altogether his estate, after deducting indebt- 
edness. 'cannot be less than $75,000 or $80,000. Such, at least, 
is the writer's opinion. 



SELECTIONS 



FROM THE 



MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 



OF 



DAVID HALE 



MmtBllaneou^ ^S^ritings, 



The following selections from the writings of Mr. Hale are 
made partly from his published articles in the Journal of Com- 
merce and in those religious newspapers to which he occasionally 
contributed, and partly from unpublished manuscripts which he 
had prepared and arranged for a fourth number of his " Facts 
and Reasonings." A topical arrangement has been adopted as 
more convenient than one following the order of time, though the 
latter has been observed as far as practicable. 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 

Addressed in 1826 to the Committee for erecting the Tremont Theater 
in Boston. 



LETTER I. 

Gentlemen — Permit one of your fellow citizens to lay before 
you some of the thoughts which have passed his mind, in reflect- 
ing upon the enterprise in which in you are engaged. You are 
men of generous and patriotic minds. You have laid ycfur plans 
upon a liberal scale. Having selected one of the nftst beautiful 
sites in a city unrivaled for elegant situations, you propose to 
erect upon it an edifice which shall endure for ages, and be ad- 
mired in the midst of architectural magnificence — a structure, 
which shall maintain its massy dignity while mirth reigns within 
its walls ; nor change, until in years to come, the funeral proces- 
sions of its builders shall have one after another passed by, and 
all who witnessed its rising have long slumbered in the grave. 
When the labor of its erection shall be completed, and art have 
finished its decorations, its doors shall be opened, and with the 
sound of the viol and every instrument of music, the throng, re- 
tiring from the busy pursuits and anxieties of the day, shall be 



148 LETTERS ON THE THEATER, 

jntUctl here, to throw off their cares, and for the evening at least 
to be muihfn]. Hero poetry shall carry its thrill throiigh the 
sniih tho art of mimicry make distant scenes and ages present, 
fitid genius and eloqnenoe and grace exert their ])ower. Here 
.A polio and the Sacred Nine shall dwell, and the delighted crowd 
i-r'f irrn and return to pay to them their Avilling evening sacrifice. But 
rioitber at its opening, nor during the long age^ while its walls 
shall stand, will the herald of salvation, -with the sacred Bible in 
his liand, tell of the tragedy on Calvary, or proclaim the hopes 
ol' eternity to dying men. No throng shall bend their knee in 
prryer, or raise their voices in shouts of thanksgiving to that one 
0(xi, who for a theater has built the imivcrse, for sceneiy spread 
out )tature, whose tinsel is the rainbow, whose spangles are planets, 
Ti ]\ose actors are men and angels led on by himself, the Lord of 
hoj^ts. Here shall assem])le from evening to evening many of 
ftrcat worth and respectability, the company of the gay, Avhose 
hearts are sad, and of those whose only care is to be happy 7iow ; 
and here shall also come the painted harlot, whose house is on 
the way to hell, and with her the veteran debauchee, whose path 
is strewed with broken vows and mined innocence. The youth, 
too, the hope of his mother, whose head has often received a fa- 
ther's blessing, with glowing passions will come here to be de- 
voured by vultui-es. But into these doors, he who seeks the 
Savior W'ill never turn hoping to find him : the afflicted will never 
KCck comfort in pouring out his comjilaint before his Father in 
TIenven, If the name of God is called at all, will it not be in pro- 
fanation, or to add weight to curses ? Will not the Bible be men- 
tioned with contempt, and the blessed Savior sometimes be made 
the song of the drunkard ? When the assemblies disperse, many 
will go away to spend the night in debauchery, and but very few 
to spend an hour with God in their closets. If sometimes a good 
jT,solution is strengthened, or a virtuous jirinciple cherished, in a 
thousand instances the bands of virtue will be loosened. From 
year to year a nudtitude Avill enter here upon a course of dissipa- 
tion in which they will be hurried to destruction. From age to age 
many fond parents will weep tears of blood over their ruined 
^ons, and possibly their fallen daughters ; and wives and sistei-s 
join the lamentation. 

.\nd now jxn-mit me to say most respectfully to you, gentle- 
men, that for all these consequences the builders of the new 
theater make themselves responsible. And let me ask you, is 
ilh's the return which is due from you to the city in which you 
reside, and in which you have accunndated )-our wealth ? Is 
this the inheritance you would leave to your children ? Will you 
consent for the sake of increasing a little, that wealth of which 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 110 

you have already enough, to visit all these evils upon yourselves, 
and your neighbors, and your posterity for ages ? 

Some farther considerations I will soon address to you, and re- 
main your obedient servant, 

A Fatueh. 



LETTER II. 

Gentlemen — The object of these letters is by no means to oi- 
fend ; neither is it to draw towards you the personal disrespect of' 
any member of the community. On tlic contrary, it is the personal 
respect which I feel towards all tlie subscribers, so far as 1 know 
tliem, and the full confidence that they would do nothing which 
they beUeved an injury to the community, which has induced m*:; 
to write. And I take the channel of a newspaper, the mor;> 
readily to meet the eye of several of the subscribers, and for lli« 
purpose of drawing forth the sentiments of a very great numbei* 
of my fellow-citizens, who I know have the same feelings with 
myself. It is to little purpose, that your friends and neighboi's 
mention your names with sorrow in their private circles, as coa- 
ncctod with the building of a new theater, if those expressions bo 
not carried to your ears. If a very humble individual can iuduco 
those friends to speak freely to you, and still more, if he ca)i pet- 
suade you to look over the subject again, there is some hope, 
that what seems to mo a most portentous evil to our city may 
yet be averted. 

I am satisfied that there is in the community a growing disap- 
probation of the theater. Within ten years the advance has beea 
very perceptible. The long-maintained doctrine that it is a school 
f<jr morals is now held by very few. The disreputable lives of 
most of the actors, the scenes of the upper boxes, of the lob- 
bies, saloons, and neighboring rooms, have poured forth proof to 
demonstration. The ruin of tluiir fondest hopes has carried to 
many famihes, not conviction only, but a brok<m heart. A very 
ri\-^I)e('.taf)le gentleman inO^i'med me, that within the circle of his 
own family connecticms, three very promising y<jung men had re- 
fjMiLly been utterly ruined, and their ruin could be distinctly 
traced to the tlieatcr, as its origin. Anotlier told me, that such 
had been his experience upon the subject, tliat though in exten- 
sive mercantile Ijusiness, he folt obliged, painful as it was, to turn 
any apprentice, from his counting-room, who attended the theater. 
He could not trust them. 1 know other men of the highest i-e- 
spectabihty, who never take mercantile papers to their dwellin;^, 
because of the evil ellects of theater advertisements. The plana 
you have proposed, to promote good order and prevent licen- 



150 LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 

tiousncss in the contemplated theater, are proofs of this progress 
of sentiment. In order that the enterprise may be popidar, it 
must hav€ a character above what is common. 

As an evidence of this change, and a fact much faeihtating its 
progress, I adduce the combination of men of higli and hboral 
character for this very purpose. So enormous has the evil be- 
come, that it can no longer be borne ; and if the same moral 
power -which has revolutionized the opinions of the world on the 
subjects' of the African character, the slave ti-ade, civil and reli- 
gious liberty, and other great interests, does not find a more im- 
pregnable fortress in the remaining favor toward theaters, then 
on tiiis topic also will public sentiment ere long be raised to the 
standard of truth, however high that may be. It cannot require 
a very long-continued or powerful ellort to overturn the remain- 
ing arguments, that theaters are a necesssary evil, and that it is 
better to go to them than to worse places. Both these argu- 
ments admit, on the face of them, that theaters are bad in them- 
selves ; an evil to be tolerated. Unless some stronger and higher 
position can be taken, a capitidation is at hand. These argu- 
ments have always been the last defense of abuses, when ex- 
posed and pursued ; and behind this fortress of basket-work, they 
have one after another submitted to tlie invincible arms of truth. 
Necessary ! Put an end to the indulgence, ;ind you end the ne- 
cessity for it. And as to the other, send a boy to the theater 
upon this principle and see whether he escapes a worse place. 
We know the stoiy of the man, who, when three crimes were pro- 
posed to him, chose intoxication as the least heinous; and when 
intoxicated committed both the otliers. 

Some other considerations 1 will take the liberty to submit on 
another occasion, and remain most respectfully your obedient 
servant, 

A Fathkr. 



LETTER III. 

Gentlemen — I remarked in my Inst letter that public senti- 
ment was becoming more conformable to the standard of truth. 
I will now make a few remarks illustrative of this. 

It is within the recollection of this generation, that merchants 
engaged in the slave trade were considered honorable men. They 
Avalked on 'Change, and made their contracts, and conversed of 
their profits, thinking of public scorn no more than if trading in 
bales of cotton. And perliaps they were scarcely more culpa- 
ble, for the enormous Avickedness of the traflic liad never been 
exposed, or even suggested to their minds. Mr. Wilberforce 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 151 

united in the first systematic effort to expose those enormities, and 
lie has lived to see public opinion so changed by his own and 
his most honorable coadjutor's labors, that now tiie tralKc not only 
covers the merchant with disjrrace, but carries him to the gibbet 
and hangs him as a pirate. So tremendous has been the turning 
round of pul)lic ojiinion, that no man would willingly acknowledge 
Inn father to have been engaged in the trade. It would be a blot 
on the family escutcheon. We know the cfi'ect on the repu- 
tation of some men whose names are never mentioned, or their 
son's names, but with this association. I use this history, not to 
compare your enterprise with the slave trade ; though little blame 
was attached to that forty years ago, and drawing the likeness 
from that jieriod it could not be severe ; but I do it to exhibit the 
changes which have been effected in public opinion. And I say 
the time may be, when he who would inflict the severest reproach 
on your son shall point to the structure in Common street, and 
say, '' i\\y father helped to build that tlieatcr." 

I have lived lonfj enourjh to see those things which were 
thought to give the finest polish, expelled with contempt from 
decent society. In my youth, infidelity of sentiment and pro- 
faneness of language were almost indisj)ensable to the fine gen- 
tleman. They were boastingly exhibited in the company of 
ladies, and many ladies could utter an oath with a manly grace. I 
need not tell you what company a profane woman must keep 
now ; nor whether a man who should use profane language 
in the presence of ladies, would pass for a gentleman. I'lie 
change of sentiment on the subject of dueling has wiped that 
reproach from New j*'ngland, and will ere long drive it from the 
whole republic. I can remember when, at convivial dinners or 
suppers, it was not much thought of, that a gentleman should be- 
come intoxicated, if the wine was but good ; or at least, that he 
should be helped to his home, by companions, who might chance 
to be in a better condition than himself. Where is now the re- 
putation of that man who gets intoxicated at a dinner ? — All 
these are the revolutions of twenty years. They are the dashings 
of a tide which has just begun to set upon us, but which, when 
the sun of intelligence and virtue has risen to its meridian, will 
bear away with resistless desolation the strong embankments of 
inicjuity. If the theater is founded on truth, it will stand against 
the flood ; but if, as I verily believe, while our churches are the 
gate of heaven, our theaters are the gate of perdition ; if their 
doors are emphatically, as is written over some of them, the " en- 
trance to the pit ;" then, ere ^'^ng, will an enlightened and indig- 
nant community sweep them away, and hardly can their builders 
expect to escape uninjured. 



152 LETTERS ON THE TIIEATEfl. 

Suca progress has !i reformation of sentiment already made, 
that most denominations of Christians, in this city at least, con- 
sider an atten(hince iijion the theater as discreditable in any mem- 
ber of their cluirches. It will reqnire no great advance farther 
to render an attendance inconsistent with any nsligious character. 
And as to tlie fasliion, let me remark, there is great danger, that to 
be religious will be tlie next wliich reigns. The friends of virtue 
have now the means of ])resenting its claims constantly before the 
community. In the dark ages, abuses might expect to exist im- 
niolosted ; but in the midst of printing presses, and associations, 
and me.ins of so many kinds, thej^ cannot escape exposure. Es- 
cially arc the inhabitants of Boston within the reach of moral in- 
fluence. There is n(tt herc^ as in New York, a constantly chan- 
ging population of thirty thousand strangers ; and were the ques- 
tion of building a new tlieater now to be submitted to tlie citizens 
of Uoston, I am confident that their vote would be a decided ne- 
gative. And further, I am confident, that would you consent to 
stop and appropriate the beautiful site which you lia\e purchas- 
ed, to some other object, a large sum could be raised from the 
community to indemnify you against loss. 

A Father. 



LETTER IV. 

Gentlemen — Perhaps I ought to say before I proceed, that 
the erection of the proposed theater is not likely to all'ect my pe- 
cuniary interests or those of any of my friends in the least de- 
gree. The motives which have actuated me ajipear on the face 
of what 1 have written. 

There are several considerations not yet suggested, which indi- 
cate a change of public opinion unfavorable to theaters. Aside 
from a change of moral sentiment which is going on, there is the 
very important fact, that public attention is Ifeginning to be drawn 
strongly to other amusements. The. favor with which ])]iil(>so- 
phical lectures on a variety of topics liave been received, exhibits 
an intellectual taste which is germinating and taking deep root 
in the upjier classes of society. To tJK^se lectures a father may 
take his wife and daughters without the fear that tlu'y will be 
covered with blushes at vulgar ril)aldry, and his son witliout the 
fear that he will fall into the enticements of the bar-room or of 
the iipper boxes. 

A taste for the fine arts is rapidly gaioiug strength. The in- 
telligent and liberal plans of the directors of the Atlieneum here, 
and of similar institutions elsewhere, have a strong tendency to 
divert the current from theaters ; and I cannot but think that they 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 153 

will do more than produce a mere diversion. The very gross per- 
form.'incos at some of the tlicatcrs must be takc^n as a part of 
theater mana<^(!m('nt and brinj^^ disirrace upon tlie fraternity. 'J'ho 
shameless exliil)itions of their persons by Madame de llutin and 
other females at the JJowery Theater in New York will be asso- 
ciated witli the theater generally. The fact which I have seen 
repeatedly stated, that theaters in England arc bad property, is a 
strong corroboration of what J have said. In i^oston, while the 
population of the city has doubled, the support of the theater has 
not increased. A very large proportion of the patronage which 
exists is from strangers, who are here for a few days only ; and 
building another tlieater cannot much increase this part of the 
company. And as to the sober citizens who reside here, they 
are too much accustomed to excitement, to be moved l)y any- 
thing more to be done. The amuial expenses of the present 
theater are about ^."JOjOOO ; and if I am correctly informcid, the 
receipts have uniformly left but a very moderate pnjfit. If your 
theater goes into operation under the circumstances of rivalry 
which must exist, the expenses of. both establishments cannot be 
less than 't'75,000. If you cannot more than double the pre- 
sent rate of income, you will lose momiy. And is there any rea- 
sonable prospect, that you can induce the thinking citizens of 
Boston to give theaters three or four times tlnur prescnit patron- 
age ? — which must be done, for the support of strangia-s cannot 
be much augmented. Jiut is there not some hope that you will 
bo able to close the Federal-street Theater ? If you could, yours 
would hardly be kept open. But how can you accomplish this ? 
The owners of that theater are numerous and wealthy. They 
can give the rent to their managers as they say they have already 
done for three years ; or they can bum the tluiater and not be in- 
jured. But it is not so with most of you. A few of you have 
money which you can sport with ; but most of you, though re- 
spectable mechanics, have not. What, let me ask you, is it rea- 
sonable to expect your stock will b(; worth in one year after the 
completion of your labor upon a theater which will cost at least 
$100,000, and remain deeply in debt ? Wliat is the value of a 
largely mortgaged property, which cannot be made to produce 
an income ? It would be easy to adduce other arguments to 
prove, that the expensive building which you are erecting must 
be poor property as to income, as well as poor in character. You 
would have a well re<julalcd theater. It is a mere chimera. To 
a theater whicli should produce a good moral effect, who would 
go ? Neither the bad, nor the good, nor the indifferent. The 
lower classes must be baited with vulgarity, and the higher would 
find better entertainment elsewhere. To regale all tastes with 
7* 



154 LETTERS ON THE THEATEK. 

dishes seasoned only to the palates of the pit and the third row, 
I am confident will ere long be found impossible. 

It was ray intention to end these letters with the third ; but the 
united expression of approbation, which I have heard from gen- 
tlemen, whose sentiments are various on other topics, has induced 
me to add a fourth to tlie number. This strong approbation, ex- 
pressed not so much of the mode in which I have exhibited the 
subject, as of the opinions advanced, I consider as an indication 
of much good. There certainly is a strong feeling pervading the 
community adverse to your enterprise. I have heard of no man 
who has been dissatisfied with these letters. 

Now, gentlemen, I may safely say, I wash my hands of the 
guilt of erecting the new theater in Common street. A virtuous 
community also disclaims all participation in the deed. The 
blood of all the victims murdered on your altar be upon your 
heads ; we are clear. But are you sure that you can bear the 
tremendous responsibility which you are taking ? Tell me not 
that the building of a theater compels nobody to drink ; and that 
a gallery of prostitutes compels nobody to be lewd. Such a 
doctrine we never act upon. The temptations of Satan compelled 
nobody to eat of the forbidden fruit, yet that temptation has 
filled our earth with mourning, and that God who said to Satan, 
" Tliou art cursed," has not altered his opinions or the rules of his 
conduct. And are you certain that no curse beyond the indig- 
nation of an injured community awaits you ? Are you certain 
that the pit which you are digging, you will not yourselves fall 
into ? You are but men, and have already felt how strong is the 
power of temptation. But most of you are fathers. Would you 
have the delicate sensibility which now plays through your 
daui^hter's aftections exchano-ed for the cfross emotions of the 
theater ? Would you drive from her cheek the expression of 
that sensibility, and bleach her countenance to a steady compo- 
sure amidst the language and conduct of sensuality '? and more — 
train her to give the smile of approbation to that vulgarity, at 
which the pit laughs ? Nay, save her from such a fall — I also 
am a father. 

And for your son, will you erect a bar and place intoxication 
before his inexperience, in its most attractive forms ? Will you 
prepare a place, where he shall be surrounded by the most de- 
praved and yet the most enticing companions which the commu- 
nity affords ? Still more ; will you build a house upon your 
grounds, that in it he may. meet and revel with harlots'? Nay 
spare him ; when your own head is white, and the hands of his 
mother are feeble, you will need the support of his steady arm, 
not trembling with a premature, as youi's with a real, old age. 



1 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 155 

As I advance, the view enlarges before me, and new and 
■weighty considerations crowd upon my mind ; but I have not 
time, and perhaps it would not effect more were I to' go farther. 
I leave the subject to your reflections. Upon you, I say again, 
if you go on with the enterprise, rests the responsibility ; and 
upon your souls will be found, as accomplices and tempters, a 
dreadful share in all the consequences. And let me say, you will 
have a long-continued account to give of the transaction, to your 
own consciences, to your injured fellow citizens, and to your of- 
fended God. 

I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, 

A Father. 



LETTER V. 

To the Inhabitants of Boston. 

Fellow-Citizens — You have seen the letters which I have ad- 
dressed to the committee and subscribers for the erection of a new 
theater. A large number of very respectable individuals have 
approved in strong terms of the sentiments contained in them, 
and believe that they exhibit by no means an exaggerated state- 
ment of the evils which threaten us. A great majority of you, I 
trust, are of the same opinion. 

The inhabitants of Boston have ever been known as attached to 
good order, sobriety, and morality. They are not an ignorant 
rabble to be lured by shows, while they are robbed of their rich- 
est treasures. The annual income of the Federal-street Theater 
is about $50,000, which, with hack hire, and other charges 
upon attendance, is a tax upon the city of at least $75,000. I 
say nothing of the expenses of those scenes which succeed the at- 
tendance. In this theater are every night assembled a company 
of women from the haunts of infamy, to pollute our youth and 
drag them away to their chambers of death. From the upper 
boxes and the pit issue exclamations fit only to be heard in hell ; 
and which, if females otherwise delicate can learn to hear ynmov- 
ed, I cannot write without pollution to my paper, nor without 
drawing upon myself a burst of indignaticjft- which I would riot 
willingly bear. And we have another theater* — but I forbear 
lest I should rend again the paternal hearts of some of you which 
have not yet ceased to bleed, and bring up again to view your de- 
spoiled and ruined sons. Over this theater one individual, having 
possessed himself of a majority of shares, is able to exert an en- 

* Schaifer's Garden, where several sous from most respectable families 
had then just been ruined. • 



ITS LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 

tire conti'o], and youth after youth is i-uined for time and eter- 
nity 'f and all the 'benefit resulting is, that he gets his daily bread, 
:ind the owners of the property receive as rent three per cent, per 
fmnum. And is there no relief ? Must the sons of the rich and 
daugliters «.)f the poor be bound, and almost in hecatombs lie 
blending victims xipoti the altars of Venus and Bacchus, and the 
liorrid god, whatever be his name, who presides over the chances 
of the game ? 

..Vnd we are to have another theater upon a larger and more 
♦'X'pcnsive scale. To support it, if it is to yield an income to the 
owners, cannot cost l(\ss than $75,000 annually. For the support 
I'i' the two principal theaters, you are to be taxed then at least 
f! 50,000; and this is as nothing, in comparison with the im- 
mense mtn"al damage y«m sustain. The shares in the contem- 
plated theater are so owned, that a portion of them must at no 
distant period be sold, whether at a profit or a loss ; and it would 
be. no nion^ than has already been done, if some one or two indi- 
vldwils should jiossess themselves of a major-ownership, and 
nialce it a d(Mi of wickedness which Avoxdd cause its builders to 
shudder. The expenses of these establishments would support 
nil vouv clergy, all your schools, your civil institutions, and I 
flight also say, cverytliing else, which is of public utility within 
the city. So cheap is virtue, so dear is vice. And for what is 
all this expenditure ? Not to produce any moral good. You are 
too ranch enlightened to allow such a pretense to be made by 
von. Scarcely can it be said it is to amuse any of you. But a 
few of you attend, and those who do, a great portion of the time 
go away disgusted, not amused. Is not all this expense incurred 
that the"*'n" owners may gain an income upon their property, and 
that a « ompany of dissipated players may gamble away your 
inonej , and in the indulgence of the lowest sensuality scatter it 
to all tho V inds as fast as you lay it before them. I do not speak 
ot' e^'er}" a^ tor. I speak of them as a class. Virtuous actors are 
ex'roptions to a general rule. What claims have Cook or Kean 
to t^renty, thirty, or forty thousand dollars annually ? Pardon 
jmo, fellow citizens, if your indignation is roused at these state- 
njiM^ts f the ti'uth. It is a case in which we are mxitually and 
deeply interested ; about which we have a right to confer toge- 
ther, jmd to confer freely. We are passengers on board a com- 
mon ship. If I sound an alarm when there is no danger, heed me 
nof ; but remember, if we fall into the whirlpool, we go down to- 
g;etJiep. In such a case as this, a heavy responsibility rests on 
♦•very man. I have thrown ofT my share. I have warned the 
builders and notified the community. You cannot innocently fold 
yoar band*. Ho who sits by when a crime is perpetrated which 



LETTERS ON THE THEATER. 157 

he might prevent, becomes an accessary. Express then, in all 
suitable ways, your firm disapprobation of this unwarrantable plan ; 
and by your decision let the builders know, that if they persist, 
they may have the theater ; but from the enlightened and virtu- 
ous citizens of Boston, they shall never have an audience, what- 
ever may be the fascinations with which they shall attempt to lure 
you. — Look at your children, ye fathers and mothers, — which of 
them do you select for the seductions of the theater ? Ye ami- 
able and beautiful daughters, where is your sex humbled, where 
is disgrace poured upon woman, where are you insulted and your- 
selves treated as devoid of virtue, so much as at the theater ? 
When you are alone, listen to the cries of the g;iHery and the inuen- 
doos of the stage scarcely less offensive ; and if blushes thicken on 
your faces, determine whether you will honor such scenes with 
your presence. Say whether you will place yourselves in the 
midst of indecency, that exhausted indulgence may gaze and see 
how you act, as the student gazes on the little animals in the ex- 
hausted receiver of his air pump. And ye young men, the hope 
of your parents and your country, is it not enough, that so many 
have already been destroyed ? The trial through Avhich you 
have to pass is indeed dreadful. I know what it is, for I have 
passed it. And to me the wonder is, not that so many are ruin- 
ed, but that any escape. Place not yourselves amidst the thick- 
est onsets of temptation. Look at many miserable beings a little 
older than yourselves, who at your age were as promising as you, 
had as much virtue, as firm sentiments, as good resolutions as 
you. You cannot, any better than they, walk on coals and 
your feet not be burned ; nor put them in your bosom and your 
clothes not be consumed. 

Here, fellow-citizens, I leave the subject to your cool reflec- 
tions ; and most respectfully subscribe myself. 

Your obedient servant, 

A Father. 

[Botli the Federal-street and Tremoat Theaters ceased years ago to 
be used as Theaters, and have been for most of the time since used as 
churches.] 



158 PERMANENT FUNDS. 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 



The following articles contain suggestions important alike 
to the officers of charitable institutions and the Christian public. 
The remarks upon the responsibility of such institutions to 
the public deserve to be seriously pondered. Mr. Hale's posi- 
tion with respect to colleges was misunderstood. He was not 
opposed to colleges ; he was not even opposed to the founding 
of colleges as charitable institutions, though perhaps he did 
not realize to what extent a college must have charitable aid 
in order to exist. But his plan was to provide for a college 
only the necessary buildings and apparatus, and leave the 
instructors to be supported by the avails of teaching, or by the 
donations of the benevolent, stated or occasional, to meet any 
deficiency from that source. Such a system he thought would 
keep professors from becoming drones, and would keep the 
institution under the watchful sympathy of the good. He did 
not seem to consider how hard it would be to procure competent 
men to devote themselves to the work of instruction — thereby 
cutting themselves off from other pursuits — witli an uncertain 
support. Mr. Hale did not make war upon colleges. One 
of his latest benefactions was the gift of five hundred dollars 
towards the fund which should place Bowdoin College under 
the control of Orthodox Congregationalists, 

These articles are repiinted from the second number of his 
" Facts and Reasonings," with his own preface. 

The following articles were written and published in the Bos- 
ton Recorder in the year 1820. The American Education So- 
ciety had then come out with the grand plan of obtaining schol- 
arships, to an extent which should render the Society independent 
of popular contributions. Tlie American Board of Commission- 
ers, at about the same time, also made an effort to increase their 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 159 

Permanent Funds, and that policy seemed to be coming into 
general popularity. I thought the policy fraught with danger, 
and wrote the following numbers in the hope of changing the 
opinions of my friends and brethren, who were leaders in the 
business, or at least of bringing the Christian public to a stand 
on the subject. 

I do not know that they ever circulated beyond the Hmits of 
their first publication, nor can I claim that they had much to do 
in changing public opinion, but I am happy to know that, with- 
out much direct argument, the views which seemed then to me 
sound have come to be generally entertained, so that the policy 
of carrying on the great Christian charities by means of interest 
on permanent funds has been almost wholly laid aside. The 
popular contributions to the American Board have, in the mean 
time, quadrapled in amount. It is a matter of great regret that 
our Hterary institutions should so pursue the same policy of 
accumulating funds. Nothing can more certainly insure their 
apostasy from sound religion and even sound education. 



This is a new age of Christianity, an age of activity, to an 
extent and of a character to which the history of the Church 
furnishes no parallel. The success is also in some good degree 
proportioned to the zeal with which it is put forth. For carry- 
ing on the great work, all the moral and physical resources 
which can be controlled are put in requisition, and brought to 
bear in every possible form. Arts, sciences, politics, wealth, act 
in harmonious alliance. Institutions are established and combi- 
nations formed, from the primary and the Sabbath-school, to 
the well endowed College and Theological Seminary ; from the 
little tract association of a country district, to the Bible Society, 
which grasps the world in its enterprises. Thus far, things have 
gone well in the main ; and there is good reason to believe that 
wisdom has come down from on high, in answer to the humble 
prayers of Christians for guidance. Yet it may be, that in these 
grand efforts to promote the glory of God on earth, men will 
have to learn the folly of their own wisdom. Hitherto, no ruin- 
ous mistakes have occurred. Some efforts have come before the 
public upon a pretty large scale, which have not been successful, 
and afterwards it could be seen that they were badly planned. 
Yet no wide ruin has ensued. But in such great and novel 
plans of operation, going forward with such great success, it is 
safe to say, that sad reverses will ensue, unless great watchful- 
ness is used. God will indeed grant wisdom when it is properly 



IGO PERMANENT FUNDS. 

sought ; but tlais can hardly be expected upon those efforts, if 
there should be any, which go upon the basis of an independence 
of His constant support and protection. With the little sagacity 
which I possess, the feature of greatest danger in this country, is 
the propensity to establish everything upon the basis of Perma- 
nent Funds. And here I think I see a danger, which calls upon 
rae to make known my apprehensions ; a danger, which I fear 
threatens the overthrow of our benevolent institutions, and a 
religious reaction, as deadly to the present hopes of a lost world, 
as have been the recent mercantile permanent investments of 
capital to the pecuniary hopes of thousands. 

My first position with regard to Permanent Funds is that 
they are fraught with great evils ; and my second, that there 
is no good which they are expected to accomplish, which cannot 
quite as well be accomplished by annual or occasional donations. 
The first danger which I will mention is perversion. An 
institution with a large amount of funds is alwaj^s an object of 
desire to the great Adversary, and he will not rest till he 
can take possession of it for his own purposes, if he is per- 
mitted. If the soldiers of the Cross have erected a citadel 
of peculiar grandeur, whose ramparts are of precious stone, 
and whose weapons are of gold, the arch-fiend has so far, in 
almost every instance, contrived to gain possession of it by 
fraud, or seduction, or treachery, or violence, and to turn its 
guns upon its retreating soldiers. What rich institution, in 
any country, has held out against his attacks for a hundred 
years ? Perhaps one or two can be mentioned, but in how 
much shorter time has he gained possession of all the others ? 
In this young country institutions are not of c5urse numerous, 
which have long been here : Cambridge College is the most 
prominent instance ; and years ago did the enemy take pos- 
session there, and from its portals point the artillery, which 
soon brought the capital and all the surrounding country to 
subjection. Nor has he thought it beneath his notice to occupy 
small outposts ; and to appropriate funds designed to support 
lectures upon the doctrines of grace, to the support indeed 
of lectures ujmn those doctrines, but whose effect is to cover 
them with contempt. What would Unitarianism ever have been 
in this region, but for the deposited funds of evangelical Chris- 
tians ? What colleges has it founded ? What societies has 
it endowed ? What churches has it built ? No, it is chiefly 
by the sacrilegious robbery of consecrated funds, or by the 
crafty or forcible taking of consecrated houses, that it has been 
able to spread desolation over ai|.d around this metropolis, and 
estabUsh a dominion here, which it costs an expenditure of 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 161 

labor and treasure to overthrow, proportioned in extent to the 
largeness of our pious fathers' charities. 

Under this head it is well to mention the danger of appro- 
priations to the personal use of the usurpers ; a calamity trifling 
indeed compared with the other. To these dangers are funds 
especially liable, which are held by societies organized in the 
common form. Around them no ditch is dug nor hedge built. 
Who compose the Society ? Individuals who have paid each 
his pittance, a dollar, or perhaps five dollars ; and of these, ten, 
twenty, sometimes fifty assemble at an annual meeting. Into the 
hands of this small number are resigned the commissions of its 
officers and the evidences of its property ; and by its will ai'e 
new officers appointed to fulfill all its pleasure. I know a 
society whose constitution requires the presence of twenty 
members to form a quorum, which has repeatedly been obliged 
to delay its business, and send out to individual members special 
and urgent requests for their presence. One hundred dollars 
would have made members enough to constitute a majority 
at any of its meetings ; and yet this society had $25,000 per- 
manent funds, and but for timely admonition, would have stood 
in the same defenseless state, with an addition of $50,000 raoi'e. 
It is not in the nature of things that bags of gold should lie 
thus by the way-side, and no one take them up. And though 
men of incorruptible integrity now have the control, it is cer- 
tainly wise to guard against abuses which may prevail here- 
after, I propose to consider some other dangers at a future 
time. Quo. 

II. 

Another danger to Permanent Funds is that of loss by in- 
sufficient security in the investment. If the money is invested 
so as to yield a tolerable return of income, there must be no 
inconsiderable degree of insecurity. If the investment is in 
bank stock, the income will not exceed five or six per cent, 
per annum ; and occasionally losses will occur wliich will pre- 
vent any dividends. But recent experience has taught the 
insecurity of banks even with a large capital ; and the more any 
one knows of the management of them, the less will he think of 
their permanent stability. They are entirely dependent on the 
men who direct them ; and are safe or otherwise, as they are 
prudent or adventurous. And scarcely any bank except that of 
the United States* has so large a capital, or is in any way so 

* Subsequent events Lave shown that this exclusion was quite un- 
necessary. 



162 PERMANENT FUNDS. 

situated as to be beyond the reach of an individual or a com- 
bination, wlio might Avish to buy a major part of its stock, 
and make it an engine of speculation. If a bank fails, its bills 
may all be paid, and yet its stock not be worth a cent. If I am 
correctly informed, the stocks of the Eagle Bank at New Haven, 
in Avhicli wei-e invested a very large amount of religious cha- 
ritable funds, will never be worth a farthing, making a total 
shipwreck of the whole. The case of the American Board of 
Commissioners is still worse ; for it appears from the proceed- 
ings of the last annual meeting, that the $4000 permanent fund 
lost by the Eagle Bank, is to he made good from current 
receipts. I do not question the right of the Board to make 
this appropriation of its income ; but it is perfectly plain, that 
the current resources of the Board and their support to Missions, 
are lessened four thousand dollars. They are four thousand 
dollars poorer as to all present operations, than they would have 
been, had the Eagle Bank stock, or the money which bought it, 
never been given them. If anything is wanting to confirm 
this statement, I will make anotlier proposition which may excite 
a smile, but which is yet obviously true. If these funds are 
always to remain, and the capital never to be used, then the 
capital will of necessity be lost ; and so long as they are thus 
kept, and until the fund system is given up, so far and so 
long, that is precisely the effect produced. The stocks of the 
United States, and of the several States, may be more secure 
than banks, though liable to great fluctuations. But these are at 
prices which leave an income of only about four per cent. The 
money for current expenditure, if not for permanent funds, is 
drawn chiefly from men in active business, who at the same time 
are ofien borrowers. In all ordinary business discounts, tlie rate 
of interest is at least six per cent. So that the Christian who 
gives one thousand dollars to a permar.ent fund and hires so much 
more money to conduct his business, produces a loss of twenty 
dollars annuall}', besides tlie labor on both sides. The Society 
would be at least as well off Avere he to pay it forty dollars 
yearly, and retain the money in his business. Let then the 
capital remain Avhere it is safely and profitably invested ; and let 
the man Avho is Avilling to do as much as to give the principal, 
be trusted that he will pay the interest. 

A circumstance Avhich adds considerably to the danger of loss, 
is that the directors of Religious Charitable Societies, especially 
the most actiA'e, are clergymen. I know one Society with large 
funds, Avhose active directors are all clerical. And it is to their 
honor, that, occupied in their vocation, their minds cannot come 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 163 

down to tlie calculations, which arc essential to the security and 
productiveness of capital. 

It is not that I fear the loss of these funds simply. If they 
cannot be brought into use, I could stand by and without a mur- 
mur see the half of them sunk in the ocean. But it is the moral 
effect which I fear. It is the closing up of the fountains of 
benevolence, which any great catastrophe in the loss of funds 
would be likely to produce. Quo. 



III. 



Another and most important danger from Permanent Funds 
is that they create an independence of the Christian public. I 
know that this is supposed to be an important benefit, resulting 
from the Funds, and in some instances at least it has been 
put foremost, that they will prevent constant solicitation. 

But it will not be difficult to show, that if such a separation 
could be effected between all the societies and the public, the 
axe would be laid at the root of that tree of Christian benev- 
olence whose healing leaves are beginning to be scattered to all 
the nations. 

The injury would fall upon the societies and those who man- 
age them, and in a most deadly manner upon the public. No 
one entertains a higher respect than I do for the men now at the 
head of our religious charities. They are, for the most part, the 
best of tlie pious, and the wisest of the learned. They are in the 
first rank of the Christian community. All the trust which 
ought to be reposed in men may be repo«!cd in them. But the 
disinterestedness of the founders of societies is not to be looked 
for in their successors, when wealth has rendered that disin- 
terestedness less important. It is the riglit time now when the 
proposing of principles cannot possibly be supposed to have any 
personal application, to establish those which are just. Preven- 
tion is much easier than cure. I ask, then, what would proba- 
bly be the effect upon the character of an humble Christian, in 
moderate circumstances, were he elevated to a throne or even to 
a fortune. How many benevolent men have been rendered 
misers by a sudden accession of wealth ! I say without hesita- 
tion, that, let the managers of these institutions be possessed of 
any supposable human character, they will conduct their affairs 
more honorably, more judiciously, and with more energy, if they 
rely upon the Christian public for support, than they will if ren- 
dered independent by Permanent Funds. These institutions be- 
long to the public as much as a bank belongs to the holders of 
its stock ; and equally are the public entitled to inspect all the 



164 PERMANENT FUNDS. 

transactions of the agents. All material transactions touching 
the interests of the association, the officers are bound to lay 
before their owners, the public. While the public support these 
institutions this course is necessary ; and if there is danger that 
the pubHc will judge erroneously respecting any disclosure, the 
disclosui'e must yet be made, and the public are sure of the 
benefits also of a careful correction of those wrong statements, 
which may pervert their knowledge. But if there were no 
dependence on the public for funds, how easy it would be to con- 
clude that it were better to retain the knowledge, and save the 
trouble of an explanation. This is but one item. Men who un- 
derstand human nature can carry the discussion forward to other 
results, more speedily than I can write them. What I do, is but 
to set up the guide-posts on the road to perversion. 

But far the most important and deadly effect Avould fall on the 
churches. Our vineyard has been dressed by the agents of 
charitable societies. To them are to be attributed as the instru- 
ments, its extension, its beauty, and its fruitfulness. Let them 
but withdraw, and soon it would be all grown over with thorns, 
and nettles would cover the face thereof. All the interest which 
is excited in themselves by activity ; from the glow which is felt 
by the orator, when he puts forth all his powers upon his noble 
subject, to that which is produced in the heart of the humblest 
collector of a cent society by his efforts ; all the animation which 
is excited in the minds of those who are addressed, — the plea- 
sm'e of giving, with the interest which every one feels in an ob- 
ject to which he has contributed ;- — the animation of conjoint 
action in auxiliary societies ; — a great part of the publications, 
and even the monthly concert itself, it is to be feared would 
have an end. Benevolence, when thei^e was no longer any need 
of her alms, would cease her activity, and cease to pray. Her 
fire Avhich has burned until the ascending volume of its flame 
has flashed to heaven, and sent gleams of light to the ends of 
the earth — would then go out, and a calculating dogmatism 
freeze up the soul. Never has religion flourished except when 
activity in keeping the Savior's command to evangelize the 
nations has been manifested in the Church. When thej^ who 
were dispersed in the persecution which followed the death of 
Stephen went everywhere preaching the Word, then did Chris- 
tianity go forth in her beauty and her strength ; but when she 
became rich she became sickly in luxury and perished on the 
throne of Constantine. So it was in the great effort in which 
Luther led the way. The more we have to do in the cause of 
Christ, the more shall we love that cause. With nothing to do, 
the Cliristian could not keep alive the spark of holiness kindled 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 165 

witliin him. This cup, then, of the blessing of contributing to 
the spread of the kingdom of our Master, let us not drink it at a 
draught, lest afterwards we perish with thirst. Here I feel con- 
strained to quote from an article headed " Penuriousncss of 
Charity," in the Recorder and Telegraph of October 27, written 
by one who well understood his subject. " It requires more ex- 
pense of nerve and muscle and talent; more time and IxavA 
labor ; more thought and plan ; more activity and vigilance and 
perseverance ; to procure money for the noblest of all objects 
which solicit lauman attention, than it does to procure the same 
sum from the commerce and business of the world." — " Look at 
the poor public servants of the Church, to whom is assigned the 
duty of soliciting the funds necessary to carry on the noblest en- 
terprises of the age. They labor harder than you do." It is 
7iot in my power to gainsay these assertions. But if the Amer- 
ican Boai-d of Missions, to raise its last year's income, has 
expended by its officers, agents, and active friends, an amount of 
labor which otherwise employed would have earned ^G0,000, 
and other societies have done the same ; then '!?200,000 worth of 
laboi', guided by the best talents in our country, has been ex- 
pended during the year, in keeping up and elevating the stan- 
dard of Christian action. That spirit of Christian action is one 
of the greatest supports of vital religion in our churches. What 
then would become of us, if all of the societies were supported 
by Permanent Funds, and this vast amount of effort withdrawn? 
If thirty years' continued effort has been necessary to bring us 
where we are, half that time of inaction would float us back to 
the point whence we started. Quo. 



IV. 

The establishment of Funds is doing that now which belongs 
to the next generation. If it is a privilege to contribute to the 
advancement of the kingdom of our Redeemer on earth, (and I 
believe it to be one of the greatest which God has conferred on 
his people,) then why should our successors on the stage bo 
deprived of their fair proportion? If, on the other hand, it 
is a labor and sacrifice, why should we burden ourselves not 
only with the share which is fairly our own, but deposit money 
to discharge the portion of those who follow us ? The com- 
munity of Christians for combined benevolent efforts is just 
coming into existence. And what infant community ever 
thought of paying the revenues of future generations ? It is 
much more common and equitable too, that those who bear the 
burden and effort of the outset should leave some portion of the 



IGG PERMANENT FUNDS. 

expense contracted in purchasing the benefits which are handed 
down to posterity, to be paid by those who receive the greatest 
benefit. And is there any roason to do\ibt that the body of 
Chiistians of the next generation will be far more able and more 
willing to give money than the present ? The efforts to obtain 
Pormanont Funds lessen 2^>'<'sc»f receipts. The late Address of 
the American Education Society put this matter in its true light. 
They say, " It seems not to be understood so clearly as it should 
be, that the recent success in obtaining scholarships instead 
of providing 2^>'Cf<cnt relief, is calculated rather to lessen the dona- 
tions for current use." Here there is a society which within the 
quarter has received subscriptions for scholarships to about the 
sura of §50,000, whose whole permanent fund is nearly or quite 
$75,000, and yet according to the same Address, " the whole 
sum received at the treasury for current itse during the last 
quarter "was but four hundred dollars ; six or seven times less 
than was necessary to meet its engagements to its beneficiaries." 
In how different a condition woidd this treasury have been if the 
late effort had been to raise money for present use ! The late 
Mr. Woodman was one of the first to perceive the dangers which 
I have mentioned, lie declined the application of the Society, 
yet exhibited his high sense of its excellence, by bequeathing to 
it $3,000 — not to establish Woodman scholarships, but with the 
condition that the interest and fifteen per cent, of the pnncipal 
should be annually expended. The American Education So- 
ciety in 1819 found its funds very low, and laid its case before 
the public. So liberally Avas its call answered, that in addition 
to the supply of its then present wants, it had given it a permanent 
fund of over $10,000, and a surplus for current use amounting 
to $10,000 more, which $10,000 were added to the fund ; a 
precaution of essential service, for when the receipts fall off, the 
money can at any time be transferred back to current use. 
Now, the Society would place its reliance on scholarships, which 
to be at all adequate to its great usefulness must amount to 
$500,000. 

Funds prevent the constant solicitude aboxit its present state 
which every societ}' needs to retain in the minds of the com- 
munity. How can a society, rich in stocks, bonds, and mort- 
gages, come before the public and plead its poverty ? And 
how can the ]niblic feel any anxiety about it, should its dona- 
tions fall ofl" or be discontinued for a time ? Above all, when 
Christians are no longer solicited, and therefore cease to con- 
tribute to any given charity, they will in a great degree cease to 
pray for it. A danger so obvious and so overwhelming needs 
only to be stated. Let then those bocieties who believe that 



PEKMANENT FUNDS. 167 

their objects can be accomplished witliout the prayers of the 
Church, build themselves on Permanent funds ; but let those who 
feel tlieir dependence on God, feel also some dependence on the 
Christian community. 

Tims much for the dangers of Permanent Funds. In the next 
place, there is no possible good which cannot as well be accom- 
plished Avithout them. I appeal to Yale College as compared 
with Cambridge. Every association, to avoid embarrassment, 
needs wealth enough to possess its necessary fixed property free 
of debt — for instance, a college, its buildings, libraries, &c. ; a 
Foreign Missionary Society, its printing presses, its missionary 
farms, buildings, &c., and s{)are capital enough to manage its 
publications and all its operations with facility. Cannot an 
association of men of high talents, furnished with all the build- 
ings and machinery of a colU'ge, contrive with such advantages 
to obtain support ? Nay will not such a college be likely to 
nourish in a far higher degree, where every professor knows that 
both his reputation and his living depend upon his efforts ? As 
to the maintenance of mercantile credit, none but a Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society needs such credit. And what merchant, if 
ottered a bill on the London Missionary Society, would refuse to 
take it, on the ground that the society had no Funds ? The wis- 
dom and integrity of its directors, and its favor with the public, 
are sufficient guarantees for its solvency. And these must be 
the chief guarantees of every other benevolent society. 

Some suppose, that although Funds have never been safe 
befoi'C, yet the present is an age so peculiar, so enlightened, that 
all reasoning from the past fails. They imagine that the lion has 
gone the length of his chain, tint the bright millennial day is now 
dawning, and from this time all things will go well. Then 
surely there is no need of Permanent l<\mds. But what age of 
the Church has not been new and peculiar? In what one have 
Christians not supposed they possessed unusual light? There 
lias already been one grand experiment upon permanent wealth 
to support religion, 'i'he monastei'ies and other rich establish- 
ments of the Roman Church have engrossed the wealth of 
nations. Many of these had their foundations laid in what was 
then considered an enlightened piety. To a vast extent the 
intentions of the donoi-s Were as pure as they are now. After 
the church had struggled Qut of the dangers of iniidelity, who 
would not have tliought them safe, at least on tliat hand ? Yet 
the adversary took the same trap, put up a stee|)le in front of it, 
changed the dress of his decoys to a surplice and band, took the 
sword from their hands, and gave each a Bible, and his success 
has been great, at least among us. Wordly alliances have 



168 P E n M A N K N T FUNDS. 

always been ruinous, but confidence in the Lord has never been 
disappointed. The groat and only secure source of revenue to 
the Church is her own elovatod and enlightened piety. This is a 
mighty fund from which all our societies may draw : — a fund 
which caiuiot be lost nor perverted. 

If it is thought that the solicitations of the great number of 
societies Avill clash with each other, the reply is. there may be 
need of system and concert among them, but if the solicitations 
are for good objects, and well directed, we shall not be injured 
by their iVi'quency. 

My remarks have been made chielly against larffc funds. But 
they will apply also to smaller ones, though with diminished im- 
portance. On the subject of parish funds, I would remark that 
in the neighborhood of l^oston they are well undeistood. A few 
churches yet possess them, and in some instatices, I know that 
their best men consider them a heavy burden, which, if they 
could, they would gladly throw olf ; other churches who in their 
journey through the desert, had they been poor, might have travel- 
ed immolestod, have, because they had money about them, fallen 
among thieves, who strijiped them and wounded them and left 
them Jialf dead. IJut oil has been poured into their wounds ; 
and being relieved of their burden, they have gone on their way 
Avith lighter steps, singing songs of deliverance. 

It is said that money can be obtained for Permanent Funds, 
which otherwise could not be had at all ; therefore the amount is 
clear gain. If this is true, it is in a great degree the conse- 
quence of an impression which Christians have had. that Perma- 
nent Funds coi\stituted the most important weight in the scale of 
usefulness. The instructions have been wrong, and it Mould be 
strange if no wrong practice followed. But it is supposed that 
money can be obtained for funds jiayable at the decease of the 
ben^factor or at some other future perioil. and the interest be. 
obtained in the mean time, and thus constitute at once ixn eOi- 
cient permanent fund. And it can be obtained by the same 
process for present use. If money is wanted faster than the 
conununity choose to pay it down, then bonds can be taken pay- 
able at a future time ; which bonds, so far as they are good 
security, will be cashed at the outset by others whose property 
is in money, and who live on its income. No loss will ensue 
from this negotiation, but practically a great profit. For al- 
though the annual iiiterest will not be brought in upon money, 
the capit^xl will be invested in well educated ministers of the gos- 
pel, the heathen educated and converted to righteousness, and 
churches founded and strengthened ; and from such an invest- 
ment will return a double usury in cash, and one tenfold in 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 169 

pioty and knowledge. Let us contemplate the difference in the 
two modes of operation. Suppose fSOO to be the sum. Call it 
equal to the education of one indigent but pious youth for the' 
ministry. Let it be at once expended. It will produce an effect 
e([ual, in the whole, to the education of this youth, in one year. 
Let another ^500 bti made a permanent fund. With interest at 
the rate of six per cent, it will produce the same effect in seven- 
teen years. The one laborer goes into the field sixteen years be- 
fore the other, and all he has to do to equal the permanent fund, 
supposing he dies in sixteen years, is to prepare another man to 
fill his place. To be sure, his successor would have just double 
tlie work to do ; for the man produced by the fund, and who 
starts with him in the year 1843, will upon the same scale of 
ellort, have brought forward his successor in 18G0, and the per- 
manent fund will at the same time produce another. It is im- 
j)ossible to state such a calculation, without showing the entire 
imjj<jLency of Permanent Funds. 

Jjut what would be the real facts resulting from an immediate 
expenditure ? Is it probable that he who goes at once to his 
work will do less than raise $00 annually for charitable pur- 
poses? Here is twelve per cent, interest on the permanent fund 
in cuhIi. Will he do less for his fellow men, than to be instru- 
mental in the salvation of one annually, and of bringing forward 
in tfie whole time two, as ministers of salvation ? What an 
odds ! Wiiile, therefore, the heathen are perishing and our own 
country is desolated for want of 'present help, and while God is 
so abundantly adding liis bh^ssing on our efl"orts, let us not under 
circumstances which cry so impressively " now is the accepted 
time," busy ourselves in laying up heaps of money which ought 
to be scattered to the ends of the earth, foolishly calculating how 
smoothly things will go on in distant years. Does not the blight 
wiiich G(k1 has sent on Permanent Funds instruct us that our 
confidence should be in Him ? Let then the contributions of 
Christians b(! increased. Lei their benevolence flow in a deeper 
and broader stream, not to fill stagnant pools, but to fertilize the 
earth. Let our charities be enlaiged, and let them be invested, 
not in banks and stocks, but in men and morals ; not in farms of 
earthly tillage, but in portions of earth's moral desert trans- 
formed inio the gardens of the Lord. 

I have accomplished my purpo.se if these humble essays have 
awakened inquiry and reflection. Quo. 

8 



iro 



PERMANENT FUNDS, 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, August 19<A, 1833.] 

The controversies which are continually arising in religious so- 
cieties of different names, as to the disposition of Permanent Funds 
which have been left to them by benevolent individuals, consti- 
tute a powerful argument against the desirableness of such funds, 
even if there were no other objections to be urged against them. 
But there are other objections, of so serious a nature, that many 
of the principal rehgious societies of the day, such as Bible, Mis- 
sionary, and Tract Associations, have become decidedly adverse 
to the possession of Permanent Funds at all. One objection is, the 
suspicion to which they give rise in the minds of persons not cor- 
dially in favor of such institutions, that these funds will be used 
in some way or other for sinister purposes ; and another is the 
feeling which is apt to prevail among those who take an interest 
in the institutions, that being in possession of so much money, 
(and rumor generally magnifies the amount at least ten-fold, and 
sometimes a hundred-fold,) they cannot need the contributions of 
individuals, or at any rate that the demand for such contributions 
must be extremely small. In more private associations, such as 
churches and congregations, there are objections of a different 
nature — though perhaps applicable in some degree to the soci- 
eties above-mentioned. Experience proves that the support of 
public worship on the part of the congregation, by their own per- 
sonal contributions, is a healthful exercise in itself, and more fa- 
vorable to the welfare of the congregation, as well as to the moral 
benefit of individuals, than if all expenses were paid by an un- 
known hand. Money is a dangerous thing in the hands of reh- 
gious societies, — dangerous, we mean, to the societies themselves, 
and the individuals composing them. It is therefore with Uttle 
pleasure that we hear of bequests made to such societies, to be 
kept as permanent funds. If people have the heart to make do- 
nations or bequests to good objects, we congratulate them on the 
disposition and the ability ; but in our estimation, they had much 
better give for immediate use, than for postei'ity, to say nothing 
of the hazard of perversion, and of laying a foundation for future 
collisions and controversies. In these days, tlicre are so many 
opportunities of doing good in one form or another of benevolent 
effort, that money applied to such objects is worth more than 
six per cent. ; or in other words, moral influence, judiciously ex- 
erted, will yield a larger increase than money lying at interest. 
Beside ; if the world is growing wiser, and better, as we hope it 
is, posterity will be as able to do its appropriate work in this 
respect, as we are to do ours. 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 171 

LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, December 4, 1841.] 

TiiE usefulness of institutions depends very much upon the 
principles of their structure ; and the character of a people de- 
pends very much upon the character of their institutions. In 
every country tliere are powerful tendencies always at work to 
misshape its institutions. A yoimg nation like ours, started by 
an intelligent people, with tlie old world lying before them for 
their contemplation, has superior advantages for rearing its insti- 
tutions in the best manner. Many of the principles upon which 
the institutions of the old world are planted, we reject. We 
think the Hindoos exceedingly debased, because they refuse all 
literature to females ; and yet many persons among us are per- 
Jiaps just as unreasonable as the Hindoos in their views upon the 
same subject. Our countrymen pi-aise liberty, yet we have had 
a great national convulsion from an eftbrt to bring in governmen- 
tal power to drive the citizens from their free choice of the vari- 
ous occupations before them. We reject an alliance of the Chui'ch 
with the State, and yet perhaps are just as much in error about 
some otiier alliances which are deemed quite indispensable. We 
have concluded that religion should have no other support from 
the laws than simple protection, and yet we hold on to an alli- 
ance of the State with education, which perhaps may finally turn 
out to be a mistake of the same nature with the one we reject. 
We do not say it is so, but in the quarrels about common schools 
Avhich exist in so many places, this fundamental inquiry will force 
itself into notice. Besides, we have a great system of Sunday- 
school education, which has no State support, and which is yet 
incomparably more efficient in reaching the wants of ignorance, 
than any of the State systems of public education. 

It has come to be generally admitted that wealth is the parent 
of vice, indolence, inefficiency and misery ; yet almost all parents 
desire to leave their children in just this dangerous condition. It 
is admitted that in all enterprises, riches take away the energy of 
men, and that the Christian religion has never prospered under 
their influence ; and yet our good men are constantly endowing 
their churches, and colleges, and theological seminaries, with riches. 
There is no such certain way to unnerve an energetic man, as to 
let him know that he has a sure and ample income for life ; and 
yet, whenever a new professorship is to be added to a college, 
the first thing to be done is, to collect so much money that the 
interest of it will secure the incumbent's salary, whether he labors 
or is idle. A rich church is almost of course an inefficient, use- 
less church. A rich college is the same thing. Then why shoidd 



172 PERMANENT FUNDS. 

men waste their money, and worse than waste it, by giving it to 
destroy the institutions they most approve? Simple, uncornipt- 
ed truth on moral and religious subjects can hardly be preserved 
in more wealth than a competency. We speak of associations, 
not individuals. The condition of the world calls for all the 
money of the charitable to relieve its present wants, and yet there 
are many who will try to hoard up their money for the next ge- 
neration, by leaving it in stocks, which, however, are very likely 
to correct the mistake of the donor by coming to nothing in the 
hands of the endowed institutions. 

The truth is, tliat personal energy is the thing which reforms 
the world, and converts the wilderness into fruitful fields. 
Money is convenient, but not half as necessary as is commonly 
supposed. It greases the wheels, but will never draw the load. 
The world may be corriijited by mone)^ !Men may be brought 
to vice, but not lo virtue by it. What x-eason is there in endow- 
ing a college, beyond the mere purchase of an establishment ? 
^len in the ordinary pursuits of life must furnish them,-?elves with 
shops and tools. If a company of educated men, with a shop 
and tools furnished to them without cost, caimot earn their own 
living, tlun' ought to starve. Schools of all sorts are made to 
flourish by the individual enterprise of their teachers, with all the 
charges of rent and apparatus upon them. The Rutgers Female 
Institute, in this city, is a matter of private though benevolent 
speculation. The income of the teachers depends on the prospe- 
rity of tlie school ; and so great is its prosperity, that it has 
neai-lv live hundred scholars, who have the amplest means of in- 
struction. Every tiling is managed upon a most liberal scale, and 
yet the stockholders get six per cent, for their money. If some 
rich man should take such a fancy to this flourishing institution 
as to give it a hundred thousand dollars, it would probably be a 
blow on the head which would paralyze all its energy. There is 
a similar institution at Albany, which is in a similar state of pros- 
perity, and has been for years. There are many other equally 
prosperous, money-making schools, we are happy to say, scat- 
tered over our country. The institution at Oberlin is a striking- 
example. Its professors earn their living by their labor, and de- 
pend entirely on the success of their enterprise. It has been at- 
tacked and rendered odious on all sides, and yet the energy of 
its professors has raised it to six hundred students, and the num- 
ber would be larger had the faculty the means of erecting more 
buildings. If this place is the hotbed of error, as is represent- 
ed, and about this it is not oar business to determine, then we 
say, it is giving truth no fair chance to furnish it only with richly- 
endowed institutions, with which to carry on the wai-. If such 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 173 

men would do good witli their money, let them spend it freely in 
relievint^ the present wants of tlie present generation. The best 
guarantee for the future is the rectitude of the present. But if 
you have a son you love, a church, a college, a seminary of any 
sort, on which your affections are fi.xed, do not make them rich. 



MISTAKEN EFFORTS. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, December 21, 1841.] 

There are a great many things done in this world from the 
most charita])le motives, which had better not be done. Sacii- 
fices are often made, and great zeal displayed, for the accom- 
plishment of had ends, and Ihat with the very best intentions. 
The chanty bestowed upon street beggars is almost all of it 
positively injurious ; and a very large proportion of the money ex- 
pended upon the poor in other ways is worse than thrown away. 
A great deal of money has been raised to endow professorships 
and scholarships in colleges and other seminaries, when the inter- 
ests of religion and learning would have been better served without 
such endowments. Tn fact, a large part of the charitable efforts 
which have been made, to establish academies and colleges for the 
purpose of educating students gratuitously, or at half price, are of 
very questionable utility. Teaching is pursued as a business by 
a great number of persons, and no seminaries are likely to be con- 
ducted so enicicntly as those Avhich are conducted with a view to 
individual profit. In cities, and in fact, all over the country, 
there are, and will be, very xnnx\y persons who cannot afford to 
educate their children, or Avho do not value education as they 
ought, for whom the benevolence of others must provide. But 
with the great mass of our people it is not so. In this city there 
are numerous private schools, extending to all branches of edu- 
cation. Suppose some Girard should bestow live millions of dol- 
lars for the establishmiMit of schools among \is where all things 
should be taught gratultoushj. If the charity should succeed 
perfectly, all the piivatc; schools would be broken up, and those 
who conduct them depi-i\ed of their means of living, and no good 
would be accomplished to the cause of education. We have 
now colleges more than enough. Suppose some man should 
establish colleges, or some State should found them, with such 
ample endowments that students would not only be taught, but 
boarded gratuitously. It would perhaps be hailed as a magni- 
ficent act of generosity, but it would do a great deal of mischief 
and very little good. Our colleges are now in a great strife for 



174 PERMANENT FUNDS. 

students, ami tho strife is cavriod on by underbidding in prices. 
In order that a college may be able to draw students to itself by 
xuiderbidding, it nuist be largelj- endowed. The expenses of 
the establishment must be paid in some other ^Yay than by 
tuition fees. The competition can never be satisfied. The col- 
leges may be endowed until education is free, and until students 
are liired to go to college, and yet no pinntwill be reachtnl where 
tlie cry will not still be, " Give, give." If an opposite course 
were pursued, private enterprise would be fostered. If bene\"o- 
lence were stopjunl at what we are suiv is the farthest bounds of 
usefulness, viz. furnishing of buildinns and apparatus, leaving the 
facidties to get their li\ing bv their faithfulness, there woulil then 
be a basis of calculatiini. As we go now, jn-ivate schools are de- 
stroyed by public schools, and public schools by eacli other, and 
yet those least useful are perhaps as nuu-li sujiported as the rest, 
by the munificence of individu.ds or the public. 

These remarks are applicable to the newspaper press and other 
modes of circulating intelligence. If a great society could be 
formed for the purpose of printing newspapers, or some benevo- 
lent individual were to bequeath ten millions of dollai-s for the 
purpose of printing a daily news'fiaper in the city of New York, 
to be distributed gratuitously for half its cost forever, it might 
seem at first blush a splendid plan of benevolence ; but the eQect 
would be extrenu^ly unfair towards those now engaged in supply- 
ing the conuuunity with newspapers, and tlie public woukl on the 
■whole, and in the long run, be great losers. Such an ovei-shadow- 
ing establishment might, at a heavy loss of money to itself, prevent 
other editors from earning their bread, but it could never servo 
tlie public so usefully as they are served by private enterprise. 
Charitable societies and endowed institutions always work at a loss. 
In tlieir very construction they are inert and extravagant. They 
should not, therefore, be formed for ends wliich can l)e accom- 
plished by private eft'ort. Benevolence extended in such ways 
cripples the enterprise which would best accomplish the end, and 
leaves the designs of goodness more poorly accomplished tlian if 
nothing had been done. 

Views like these, we are sure, ought to be Tnore deeply pon- 
dered than they have been. It is of great importance that the 
institutions of our country shoidd be so formed as to retain their 
vigor from age to age. If they are to do so, then they must 
have a large infusion of individual enterprise and individual inter- 
est. Free trade is good in other matters besides buying and sell- 
ing. This country lias tried it in its religious institutions, and is 
reaping a rich harvest of blessings in consequence. There is 
more in the same jilan for all sorts of doing good, than has ge- 
ncnilly been supposed. 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 175 

COLLEGES AND COLLEGE FUNDS. 

[From the Journal nf Commerce, JJcceinlfer 18, 184G.] 

TiiK Rev. Thomas Spencer of England, who, though a church- 
man, is a noble defenfler of free principles, in liis admirable tract 
entitled " The People's llights and how to Get them," writes as 
follows : — 

" Tho rif^hts of property arc invadcl by ecclesiastical, c<Iucational, 
ami clmritable ciidowincnts, wliicli not only become prolific sources of 
corruption, but actu;illy derive tJieir value from tlie industry of a 
future day, and are tlicrefore a tax upon all otlier property. An 
estate, for instance, wliicli has been left to a Oriuninar iScliooI, and 
•which, when the testator made Iiis will, was worth £,M) a year, but 
whicii is now worth £,-jUW a year, derives its cliicf value fiom those 
who have built upon and improved it, who arc thus made to K've the 
produce of their labor to an endowment over which they have no con- 
trol. It is Li;^li time for tho world to throw off' the dominion of the 
dead ; and to pbu;e the land under tiie entire mansigcment of the living. 
The rights of pi-operty will allow a man to sell, give, or bequeatli his 
property to another, but not to tie it up throughout perpetual genera- 
tions. I5y endowment and by the law of primogeniture, the living are 
not only governed by the acts of tiie dcail, but by such acts as those 
dead, if now alive, would be the last to sanction. They whose only ob- 
ject was to push fjrward their fellow-creatures are now the means of 
keeping them back ; and the most enlightened men of former days are 
now, in this age of science and discoveries, made the dispensers of hea- 
then mythology and a use-less smattering of Latin. and Greek. Tlieso 
endowments ought to be taken by the State, and, with the least possible 
injury to the present possessors, appropriaicd to the payment of the 
National Debt. A public school, with an endowment of £20,000 a year, 
origin.'illy intended for the education of the poor in the most useful 
learning that could be got, but now appropriated to the giving of a 
most imperfect education to the sons of the rich, is a disgrace to our 
land." 

These are thoughts worthy of the mo.st serious consideration. 
There are great truths in them. This we may say without stop- 
ping to endorse everything precisely as it stands. Men, and 
good men, have almost with one consent rejected the simple 
plan of Jesus Christ. They fear liberty and the control of the 
people, and go about to establish knowledge and religion by 
ecclesiastical inclosures and pecuniary emoluments. jjut in 
these plans they have always been disappointed, and always will 
be. I'he hierarchy of the dark ages had its foundations laid in 
this way, and now, in our young country, where pure religion 
and learning might be handed down to the latest po.sterity, even 
good men seem de;if to all the lessons of experience, and are ex- 
posing our institutions to the same ruin. The two great sources 
of the overthrow of pure Christianity and sound leai-ning in past 
times, were ecclesiastical organizations and pecuniary endow- 



17G PERMANENT FUNDS. 

monls. Wc iiUoiul now to speak chiefly of the latter, and as 
coimcoted with litomture. Religion has been severed from the 
State in this country, but learning is bound to it still. We arc 
not ready to say tliat this is wrong, yet it would be a revolution 
no more strange than the other, if the help of the State in learn- 
ing should one day be deemed as gri'at a hinderance, as in mat- 
ters of leligion. . The world has hardly had an exhibition of 
what liberty without the State will do for learning. In the 
British colony of South Australia there is a specimen worthy of 
much contemplation. That colony was commenced some terj 
yeai-s ago. upon a plan of very luiusual liberty. The Govern- 
ment of tircat Britain merely guaranteed to the emigrants that 
they should govern themselves, and that no convicts should be 
sent there. Freedom of trade, education, and religion, prevail 
there. Neither the home government nor that established by 
the colonists has done anything for the patronage of religion 
and learning. Yet the pojndatioTi, the commerce, and the 
wealth of the colony have rapidly increased, and although such 
colonists must have been comparatixely poor, they have every- 
where jii-ovided themselves with schools and churches, with 
remarkable promptness ; so that in these respects they are pro- 
bably as well oft" as the mother countr)'. A paragraph in the let- 
ter of our London correspondent of October 30th contains some 
statistics showing the wonderfully rapid growth of this free peo- 
ple. The bishop sent to superintend the Episcopal Church in 
Kew Holland was struck with the religious energy of the colo- 
nists of South Australia, but complained that they wasted their 
strength in buiUling many small churches of various denomina- 
tions, instead of uniting in one or two large enterprises. These 
colonists are in a fair way to j-ank high in their religious and lit- 
eraiy character, and this without governmental interference with 
either. We will add, that the Sabbath-schools, wherever they 
exist, are the best schools wluch exist, and drop this point of 
in(juiry. 

If it is necessary that colleges shoidd be charity institutions, 
it does not follow that they should be sustained by funds draw- 
ing si.\ per cent, interest, rather than by yearly contributions ; 
nor that they should be so multiplied as to destroy each other. 
We have arrived at a position in both these respects, which calls 
u[)on us to stop and incjuire whether we are going right. Every 
genei-ation owes important obligations to the next, and one of 
these obligations is, to see that the next generation is free. We 
are not at liberty to embarrass their struggle for the mainte- 
nance of sound learning and sound religion. If we make rich 
colleges or chiu'ches which will be independent of the next 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 177 

generation, we run tlie hazard of greatly increasing their bur- 
dens. We do not mean to say whether Orthodoxy or Unitari- 
ani.sm he the trutli, but takin;^ the opinions of Harvard and the 
other founders of that College as the opinions which they deem- 
ed of the utmost importance, had they a right to distrust th(;ir 
posteiity, and by tiieir donations of large funds, place that Col- 
lege beyond the control of future gcntsrations, and so render the 
labor of maintaining the opinions of the founders of that College 
by those who should believe them afterwards, so much more dif- 
licult? Had Harvard and his pious associates and successors a 
right to throw so vast a burden as this upon their posterity who 
should believe with themselves ? Certainly they had no such 
right With their views of truth, they were bound to leave pos- 
terity free to act, without such an incumbrance. Again, and 
without saying who is right, but only that every man is bound 
to support what he holds to be important truth, we may ask 
whether (^ueen Anne, wjio gave a great farm to Trinity Church 
in olden times, worth millions now, treated this generation fairly 
when she gave that property to control the E[)iscopal Church, 
as it does in these days, and blight our city of living men with 
its interminable leases. We could name other examples where 
the goodness and pious liberality of tlie generations gone by, 
have entailed insuperable burdens upon the men who hold the 
same opinions in this generation. Everybody can see, that how- 
ever charitable and worthy the individuals were who made these 
donations, and though their good intentions may have their re- 
ward, it is not the less true that their charity was great unfair- 
ness toward the present generation. If tlds generation endow 
Yale or Amherst, or the Metliodist College at Middletown, or 
the Episcoj)al College at Hartford, to such an extent that they 
can go on and prosper though they become th<jroiighly revolu- 
tionized in their opinions, and though future generations with- 
draw from them, it will be doubly guilty, because acting under 
the light of an experience which Hai-vard and his cotemporaries 
did not enjoy. The earth belongs to the living, unembarrassed 
f)y the entailments of the dead ; and truth will always be best pro- 
moted by leaving its care for the future to " God, and the people" 
whom He shall have on the earth. The founders of our institu- 
tions believed this, and secured inestimable benefits by prohil)it- 
ing primogenitures or entailments of estates in any form. But 
their jjrohibitions do not reach corporations, who, as they never 
die, hold tiieir estates in perpetual entfiilment. 

Although colleges are important, their undue multiplication is 
a great misfortune. If there are too many, the cost is too great, 
both of men and treasure, and yet all are feeble. Colleges claim 
8* 



178 PERMANENT FUNDS. 

the best talents for their instruction. Each one must withdraw 
some half dozen or whole dozen of the best ministers or other 
men of learning and usefulness, and shut them up to teaching. 
If half a dozen men of first-rate powers of usefulness are shut up 
to the education of fifty or a himdred boys, when those boys 
might just about as well be added to the classes of another col- 
lege, it is a most improvident' and culpable waste of good things. 
If good men contribute their funds to build useless colleges, and 
support their professors, they do mischief thereby, and had bet- 
ter throw their money into the sea. There is no danger of too 
much religion or knowledge, nor of too much instruction in 
either. But there is great danger from institutions, Avhether lit- 
erary or religious, if placed above the control of the living age. 
Such institutions have ever been the bane of society. Europe is 
covered with institutions founded and enriched by the good in- 
tentions of past ages, to be putrid sores in this. Our own coun- 
try is young, and should render her youtli perpetual. But the 
policy wliich Ave reprobate, is already enfeebling us, and inflict- 
ing at least some small taint upon us of European decrepitude. 
The covering was a little raised from Harvard, and we saw the 
corruption of sinecure professors, paid a hundred dollars an hour 
for their services. It was only with the help of peculiar circum- 
stances, that Mr. Bancroft, standing high as he did among the 
literary men of the East, was able, with his compatriots, to lift 
the covering so much ; — and how very few, if any, of the cor- 
ruptions of that institution have been or can be remedied ! 
Avowed opponents can do nothing in such a case, for they can- 
not obtain the necessary information ; and if they could, are 
easily discredited. Friends only can do the faithful Avork, and 
hoAv scarce are friends who will immolate themselves on such an 
altar ! 



THE STATE AND THE COLLEGES. 
• [From the Journal of Commerce, April 29, 1848.] 

There are two ways of being unsectarian : one is to include all 
sects in government favors, and the other is to exclude them all. 
The latter course is easily adjusted ; the former is exceedingly 
difficult of adjustment. The government of our State and those 
of most of the other States have adopted the doctrine that the 
State is bound to educate the children of the people. In carry- 
ing out this doctrine, they have now and then come upon unex- 
pected difficulties ; but never seem to have thought seriously that 



PERMANENT FUNDS. 179 

the origin of these difficulties was the adoption of a wrong itrin- 
c'q)le. Our common scliools, having been in general constructed 
as public schools, are free, as far as possible, from denominational 
characteristics. But the colleges aie all sectarian institutions. 
They are the great schools for preachers, where young men are 
expected to be trained to certain religious views, tliat they may 
become preachers of those views. ■ They are in truth the strong- 
holds of denominations ; yet, having a prominent literary character, 
they are, as literary institutions, taken under State patronage. At 
the last session of the Legislature the Catholics for the first time 
presented their claim to participate in the State bounty. The 
claim was unquestionably good upon the plan heretofore pursued, 
and a Legislature altogether Protestant was obliged, in plain 
justice, to put Fordham in with the rest. It was a noble piece 
of adherence to equal and impartial justice. These Pi'otestants 
could not plead, as Cathohcs do when in power, that theirs is 
the only true Church, and all others heretics ; and that therefore 
the latter ouffht not only to be excluded from patronage, but pre- 
vented by all possible means from propagating their pestiferous 
doctrines. Protestants acknowledge the equality of men in their 
right to determine, each one for himself, what is his duty to his 
Creator. The State must continue to support Fordham or aban- 
don the colleges to their friends. There is no other possible al- 
ternative which can be adopted with honor. We hope the Legis- 
lature will see that they have committed a great error in distri- 
buting the fimds of the State to colleges at all ; and will extricate 
themselves from the difficulty by making no more such gi-ants. 
Not for the sake of ridding themselves of Fordham, but because 
the whole policy is unsound and injurious. 

While scorning the doctrines of Fourier, under the precise 
forms in which his disciples seek to put tliein in practice, we have 
failed to see that they are, after all, only tlie established principles 
of our government, developed in a different shape. We acknow- 
ledge the obligation of the State to feed and educate all who 
throw themselves iipon it for these purposes, or even neglect to 
provide for themselves. But passing over the Fourier question, 
it seems to us plain, that whatever may have been proper in the 
infancy of the country, colleges ought no longer to be objects of 
State patronage — at least those in the older States. The deno- 
minations are able and willing to take care of their own colleges. 
There are too many colleges, and there will be too many even 
without State patronage. The expectation of patronage from the 
State will stimulate new colleges into a useless existence, for the 
benefit of villages and sects or fractions of sects, and embarrass 
legislation by multiplied applications, and all to the damage rather 



180 COLON I X ATIO N. 

than advancement of knowledge. By the process of private be- 
quests, some of our colleges are already becoming too rich. We 
are getting so much wealtli in our country, that many persons 
need legatees, and tlie colleges are often selected by testators. 
Thev generally adopt the system of piling up money in -what is 
called " foiuidations" for professorships, wliich foundations are 
just the most ellicient opiates (or the professors who stand upon 
them. It is already apparent that our richest colleges are least 
useful, and that if we would preser\e their elliciency, thev must 
be kept in alliance with that great middle class in which lies the 
great stiengih of every people. 



SLAVERY ; COLONIZATION ; ABOLITION. 



Thoioh the controvei*sv to which these articles relate is 
nearly obsolete, it has been thought best to collect them as 
a matter of history, and an illustration of the spirit of the discus- 
sion. They have been st^lected not with reference to the views 
or jnefiMences of the Editor, but in order fairly to present the 
ojnnions of Mr. Hale on a subject in which he ever felt a deep 
interest. 



COLON IZATIOX. 
[i^Vom the Joitrnal^of Connna-ee, May 1o. 1S3 1.] 

TiiK citizens of New York, ami of the country round about, 
have recently been awakened by the warm discussions Avhich 
have been going on on the subject of Colonization. Tlie colo- 
nization of the people of color of the United States was a 
thought which originated in some beneM^lont miiuls, juMhaps 
twenty years ago. 

In the anxious inquiry, " AVhat shall be done for our country 
and the colored population in it ?" they discovered that there 
was one thing which could be done, and that one thing was 



COLONIZATION. 181 

to provide some place beyond the reach of slavery and its 
associations of degradation, and assist as many free colored 
persoas to remove there as denired to f^o. In this it was found 
that pliilanthropists of the North and South could act har- 
moniously, and so create a bond of union out of a subject 
which had tlircatened disunion. The most intelligent agents 
were dispatched to Africa, who fixed upon a certain point 
of the coast, made negotiations with the native chiefs, secured 
the rer^uisite territory, and made preparations for a settlement. 

From that time to this, colored persons have been found 
desirous of removing to Africa in larger numbers than the 
funds of the charitable could carry. 80 tliat now the colony 
consists of three thousand persons, stretching along in various 
settlements upon the coast for more tlian a hundred miles. The 
businrjss has chiefly been conducted under the auspices of "The 
American Colonization Society ;" an association composed of 
a large number of the most distinguished men in all parts of 
the country, having its central point at the seat of government. 
In the colony, schools are established, churches erected, and 
a well organized society is forming. The natives of the neigh- 
borhood, attracted by the superior condition of the colonists, 
are asking for teachers, and oifering whatever inducements they 
can, to procure for themselves the advantages which they 
see in the colony. The slave trade along that part of the 
coast has been, by the efforts of the colonists, effectually sup- 
pressed. Jjy the operations of the society the attention of 
the American people has been in a degree kept upon the 
blacks and their condition, and a kind spirit towards them has 
been cherished and strengthened. 

We know that these details will seem trite to those who 
for years have been looking at the movements of the Colo- 
nizationists. But we have within a few days past met with 
several persons of intelligence whose attention has just been 
aroused by the din of the last few days' conflict, but who under- 
stand little or nothing of the ground of the contest. It is 
for their benefit we have given this bird's-eye glance of Colo- 
nization. It has but one principle ; it does but one thing, 
and that one thing is the colonizing of free people of color with 
tlteir oam consent. Other good things have followed as effects, 
some of which we have mentioned above, and some of its friends 
biilieve it tends strongly to bring about, in a peaceful and 
quiet way, the total abolition of slavery. But with all such 
matters, the condition of the slaves, their rights and everything 
else of this sort, the society does not interfere. The broad 
field Is left open for other individuals, or for the same individuals 



1S2 COLONIZATION. 

if llioy ploaso. to oocujiy a^ may suit thoir rospootivc opinions. 
Tho ONK tiling- wo have mentioned of the society is its unit, 
and its whole account. 

Such a plan of benevolence, it would seem, must com- 
mend it,-<elf to the good wishes, or at least disarm the oppo- 
sition, of all men. Yet •within a few yeai-s past, under the 
claim of extra love for the Macks, there has sprung up an 
organized war upon Colonization, carried on with a spirit of 
violence rarely exceeded. Those who have engaged in this 
strange attack are some of them men of benevolence and 
high respectability in the community. Yet to such a hight 
has the war been carried, that many of the measures taken 
have seemed to us far enough from such as ought to char- 
acterize honorable conllicts. For the last year or two it has 
been carried on with so much s\iccess, at least in the opinion 
ot" its abettors, that at their annivei-sary livst week, when all 
things were going on gloriously, one of their number, a man 
too of great excellence of character, proclaimed to the audi- 
ence that they had assembled '• to toll the death-knell and 
attend the funeral obsequies of the American Colonization 
Society." In tlie early part of this war the Colonization Society 
contented itself with acting on the defensive ; but its friends 
have at last been driven to take the field, and have, during 
the last few days, not only made their principles undei-stood, 
and vindicated themselves before admiring crowds, but have 
carried the war into the camp of their opponents until the 
necessity for a winding-sheet has well-nigh passed to the 
otiun- side, and Colonization is almost in danger of being com- 
pelled to perform the last kind offices for its lately exulting 
foe. Public sentiment is aroused. Colonization has gmned a 
degree of attention which it could never before excite. Its 
objects are understood and appreciated, and will be supported 
by increivsing multitudes of our citizens, while the furious and 
unfair ettbrts of self-styled Abolitionists are looked upon, to use a 
mild term, with general disapprobation. 

If Abolitionists can do anything for the blacks, and for our 
country in reference to them, Ik'skfcs that which is doing by Colo- 
nization, let them do it. They will have the hearty cooperation 
o\' all good men. But if they dash against Colonization, they will 
tlnd it a rock. 



M n K R I A FACTS. 183 

" FUNERAL " EXPENSES. 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, June 6, 1835.] 

Moses Allen, Esq., Treasurer of the New York Colonization 
Society, has received in cash since the 1st of May, and chiefly 
within the last few day.s, over four t}ioi:.4anj> dollars. The 
friends of Colonization, having heard that their cause had fallen 
among slanderers, who undertook to strip off its beauty, and 
then stJihbed it with weapons, leaving it for dead, have made a 
contribution, that whatever decency required, might be done. 



LIBERIA FACTS. 
[Frow the Journal of C(/mmerce, July 8, 1834.] 

We have had consideraljle opportunity to converse with Messrs. 
Temple and Jones, who have just returned from Liberia. Their 
conversation has interested us, and will we presume interest our 
readers ; though to such as are very familiarly acquainted with 
the affairs of the colony, it may not afford any great addition to 
their stock of information. Temple is a man of sprightliness and 
ardor. He is not yet recovered from the indisposition which so 
far deranged his reason, as for the time to make him write 
helter-skelter letters, which afforded glorious pickings for the 
Abolitionists ; though we know that some of them saspected, 
at the time, that the wriUir was not of sane mind, and one 
of their editors had conscience enough to refrain from publishinf 
them on account of the distinct marks of aberration which they 
bore. Jones was sent out by a Colonization .Society of Ken- 
tucky, and sailed with a detachment collected in that State, 
in the latter part of 1832. He is a man of apparent coolness, 
of good sense, discrimination, and piety, [{is manner is .such as 
Ui fix upon him the confidence of those who hear him. Both 
are black men of more tlian ordinary education and talents. 
Jones was ten months in the colony, and visited all parts of it. 
'J'emple was there but about four months. They say the soil of 
Liberia is excellent. Jones is acquainted with the choice lands 
in the heart of Kentucky, and says he thinks the soil of Libetia 
equally excellent, though he saw some lands there which he con- 
siders better than any which he ever saw in Kentucky. The 
land is, some of it, open and covered with high grass, but in 
general it is wooded with heavy trees. Coffee, cotton, and rice 
arc indigenous, and grow well ; but in order that they should 
produce profitably, they mu.st there, as everywhere, be regularly 
cultivated. Cotton does not there, as in this country, require to 



184 LIBERIA FACTS. 

be planted annually, but blooms and bolls the year round, and 
from year to year. Coffee trees bear freely four or five years 
after planting. Jones saw some trees picked, whicb yielded 
abundantly. The natives are good laborers, and contented with 
very low wages — not over twenty-five cents a day. With their 
help, it would be easy to cultivate coffee, rice, and cotton, to any 
extent, and with ample profit. Plantains and bananas grow 
freely. The low lands bear pineapples abundantly, and various 
other delicious fruits are in great profusion. 

The climate is pleasant, and to those who are acclimated, 
healthy. Many of the natives live to a great age, and several of 
the colonists were heard to say that their health was much better 
than in America. All who go from this country are, after a few 
days or weeks, attacked with fever and ague, which prostrates 
them for a considerable time, and proves fatal in many cases, 
especially where there is indiscretion on the part of the patients, 
or want of comfortable accommodations. This fever resembles 
that which attacks emigrants to many parts of the western wilds 
in our own country, though generally more severe, yet much less 
severe than the seasoning which slaves go through, who are 
removed from the high lands to Georgia and South Carolina. 
It is much more injurious to white persons than to black. It is 
believed that the Cape Mount territory will prove more healtliy 
than the country about Monrovia, though against the latter there 
is nothing to allege but the seasoning fever. This fever the 
inhabitants say all the native children have when quite young. 

There are plenty of fisli in the sea and rivers, and at Junk fine 
oysters. 

The occupations of the colonists have been trading, agricul- 
ture, and such mechanic occupations as are connected with 
building, and tlie other wants of a new people. A gi'eat many are 
tradei's, pressing their establishments back into the interior in 
pursuit of camwood, ivory, gold dust, palm oil, &c. A consid- 
ei-able number have become wealthy. Those who have set 
themselves to the cultivation of their lots have found that the 
surest if not the shortest way to comfort. Some of the traders 
say they intend to turn their attention more to agriculture here- 
aftei". Tiiere are also in the colony quite too large a number of 
emigrants who have not adopted any settled pursuits, but who 
depend on jobs and day labor for a support. These find little 
encouragement, as the natives are better and cheaper laborers. 
Mechanics arc liberally paid. The farmers, if we may call them 
such, in the neighborhood of Monrovia find a very good business 
in supplying that market. The recaptured Ebos tind Congos, 
who inhabit New Georgia, exhibit the best specimens of agricul- 



LIBERIA FACTS. 185 

tural success, though even there but a few acres from each lot 
are yet cleared and brought under tillage. 

All the towns have churches and school-houses. The churches 
are well supplied with cokjred preachers, and arc attended, and 
the Sabbath observed, as well and better than in New York. 

The sober and industrious, and especially the I'eligious part of 
the colonists are contented and happy. Many of them ex- 
pressed in the warmest manner their gratitude for such a place 
of refuge, and declared that nothing would tempt them to return 
to the United States. They said that, let the laws here be 
what they might, they had much rather live in Liberia. On the 
contrary, those who are indolent and vicious, and those who 
went out under the notion that they should be ladies and gen- 
tlemen, and who expected to live in the emphatic freedom which 
the negroes, so many of them, think the only freedom worth 
having, viz., freedom from work — all such persons are disap- 
pointed, and find fault with the colony, when in fact the only 
difficulty is in themselves. 

The colonists ai'c, too many of them, fond of show and style, 
and making a dash and living in idleness, in sliort, of being 
negroes, and almost all are intent on their own pursuits, and 
attend but little to the maintenance of law and order, and 
the advancement of the public good. There is great w^ant of 
men well educated, men of good habits and public spirit. The 
colony could very well afford to give two hwfcrs for one good 
citizen. 

Spirituous liquors are sold at the shops as freely as in the 
towns of the United States, and produce similar effects on the 
population. There are more or less feuds and quarrels among 
the people, but Jones' illustration of their extent was a little 
humiliating, for he said he thought there were less of such 
scenes than among the white people here ; and this, without 
having been a witness to our spring election. 

Both Temple and Jones say, Liberia is the place for them, 
their friends and their children, and that they intend to return 
speedily with as many as will accompany them, and spend their 
lives there. 

From all this we judge that Liberia is not far from what a 
man of sense would have expected it to be. The expectations 
of such a man Ave think would be full)^ equaled. Tliose who 
demand that in the construction of such a colony there should 
be nothing wrong, no mismanagement, no vices, no selfishness, 
indeed, that liberated slaves should constitute a more perfect 
community than was ever seen on the earth, and that the enter- 
prise should be carried on with a degree of wisdom and success 



186 LIBETcIA FACTS. 

never before known, such persons, like a portion of the colonists 
■which we have mentioned, find abundant cause of complaint. 
There is there the selfishness, and quite too much of the decided 
vice, which dishonor all communities. The colonists are much 
more intent on their own affairs than on those of the public. In 
this they have no special superiority over the citizens of our own 
happy land. The institutions of society are never built, nor do 
they rest, after all our poetry of patriotism, upon anything 
better than the necessity which every man feels of protecting 
himself and his property against lawless depredation. In pro- 
portion as the number of men of property increases in Liberia, 
will the institutions of law be strengthened. Out of that very 
eagerness for money-making, which now characterizes so many 
of the colonists, and makes them neglect the public, will ulti- 
mately grow law and order, and pubhc spirit, and stable insti- 
tutions. 

Those who are engaged in raising a hue and cry about evils 
in Liberia, which we cannot correct here at home, display no 
great share of charity or good sense. No other colony has ever 
succeeded so well as that ; and none but those of the Puritans 
ever exhibited more public spirit, or more public virtue, or gave 
better promise of being the germ of an empire. 



ONE FACT. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, July 4, 1834.] 

A GENTLEMAN now here from Georgia is the owner of between 
forty and fifty slaves. They are employed in agriculture, and 
have such tasks to perform that their day's work is usually ac- 
complished by one or two o'clock in the aftei'noon ; after which 
they work on wages for their master or other persons, or do 
what else they please. They had, however, become somewhat 
refractory, and on a consideration of the whole matter, their 
master determined, before leaving home for the North, to give 
them the offer of their freedom. This the laws of Georgia for- 
bid, except on condition of leaving the State. The colony at 
Liberia obviated this difficulty, and enabled him to try his benev- 
olent experiment. He, therefore, called them together, made 
them an address, and told them they were free, upon condition of 
going to Liberia. But they all declined, — not because they ob- 
jected to the condition, for they knew nothing of the misrepre- 
sentations of Abolition publications, but because they chose to 
remain as they were. A neighbor of this gentleman had, a short 
time before, sold his slaves at $300 each ; so that the slaves who 



ANTI-SLAVERY MEETING. 18T 

were offered their freedom by this one gentleman were worth 
fully ^15,000, and could have been sold for that sum but for the 
sympathy of their master. 

Now, what a beautiful figure a few northern men cut, who 
having themselves, with one or two exceptions, made no sacrifices 
for the blacks, get together in conventions, and vote such a man 
a pirate, and load him with all tlie epithets of opprobrium which 
can be invented ! This man was and is a slaveholder, and has 
only offered his slaves tlieir liberty on the wicked condition of 
being " expatriated." Such are the broad charges which Aboli- 
tionists bring against men in a mass, some of whom are much 
better than themselves. Will such slanders aid any righteous 



ANTI-SLAVERY MEETING. 
[Fro7n the Journal of Commej-ce, July 7, 1834.] 

A PUBLIC meeting was notified by the Abolitionists, to be held 
at Chatham Chapel on the morning of the 4th of July. The as- 
sembly to us appeared meager. It was composed of about 
equal proportions of whites and blacks, commingled through the 
house, and filling it about half full. In the choir of singers the 
males were chiefly black, and the females mixed together about 
half and half. The appearance of the audience seemed to us to 
indicate, that public curiosity was nearly satisfied with Abolition- 
ism, and we felt sure that the promiscuous seating would deter 
most persons from attending hereafter. 

The performances of the meeting commenced quietly, but soon 
after the beginning of the oration by David Paul Brown, Esq., 
who had been invited from Philadelphia for the occasion, a few 
low fellows near the door commenced a disturbance, which was 
kept up in various ways by shouting and clapping, and personal 
discussion with some of the Abolitionists about the relative im- 
portance of black and white men. Mr. Brown found it impos- 
sible to proceed, and he left the house, saying good-naturedly, 
that he must imitate the example of John Quincy Adams, when 
he published his " speech which was suppressed by the previous 
question." The assembly waited patiently for half an hour, per- 
haps, and as the noise did not cease, the choir sang the hymns 
which had been prepared, and all hands dispersed. Some of 
the police were in the mean time called, but declined making ar- 
rests, as no violence had been used, and the noise was cloaked 
under the expression of opinion at a public and promiscuous 
meeting. 



188 INCENDIARISM. 

The mingling of colors was calciilated to produce excitement, 
espocially lhat\if tho females in the choir. It was highly repre- 
heiisihlo in the leaders to peisuado the young white women to 
do themselves so great an injury, for the sake of exemplifying 
their strange notions. Whether public opinion be right or 
wrong on this subject, young wonuMi are not the proper troops 
to be pushed to the front rai\k in the attack upon it. On tho 
wall of (lie building, outside, was sus])ended the Declaration of 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, framed, and in the style of a 
fac-siniile of the Declaration of American Independence. No- 
thing hardly could have been invented more insulting to Ameri- 
can Vecling. Indeed, if tho Abolitionists had wished for a row, 
they could hardly have adopted measures more likely to bring it 
about. 

Still Ave, in common with tho friends of Colonization univer- 
sally, reprobate and condemn the disturbance which was made. 
Inexcusable as were tho proceedings of the Abolitionists, they 
form no excuse for the interruption of their meeting. The right 
to meet and discuss all topics belongs to those who are in the 
wrong as much as to those who arc in the right. Public opin- 
ion needs reform in our city on this subject. The disturbance at 
Chatham Chapel was a small atVair compared Avith Avhat Ave 
have frequently Avitnessed at public meetings on exciting topics. 



INCENDIARISM. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, July 10, 1834.] 

A ii.\NDniLL of the most incendiary character Avas seen posted 
about the city earl)^ yesterday morning, headed 

" LOOK OUT FOR KIDNAPrERS ! !" 

Then folloAvs a cut, representing a negro-driver mounted on a 
horse, Avith a double-thonged Avhip, driving before him a colored 
man, Avhose Avife aiul children are almost clinging to the horse to 
prevent the imnatural separation. And Avhat is the object of 
this expressive cut, in its present application ? Nothing more 
nor less than an appeal to mob violence, against the execution of 
the hiAvs, — nay, of the Constitution ; Avhich expressly provides 
that " no person held to service or labor in one State under the 
Iravs thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or la- 
bor ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to Avhora 
such service or labor may be due." The details of the handbill 
we decline copying. It Avill be sufficient to state that it records. 



INCENDIARISM. 189 

in the most oflcnsive terms, tlie circumstances of a claim pre- 
sented to om- courts, for tlie surrender of tliree (alleirod) run- 
Jiway slaves — a man, his Avifc, and child. It concludes as fol- 
lows : — " Will men wlio \ovo liberty, and believe that all inno- 
cent men have a rijrht to it, tamely see such villainy perpetrated 
by law in this city? — A man would be hunL,^ for it, if committed 
on the coast of Africa ! — Opposition to tyrants is obciditiuce to 
(^)d." 

'J'liis haiKll)ill is dated July 8th. As the Emancipator of tho 
day previous contains the same thing in substance;, and in nearly 
tiM! same phraseology, (with some omissions,) we d<;em it fair to 
iiil'er tliat both are tin; offspring of the same parents — i. c, of 
tbc Aljolitionists : of those; who, " whatever else they may be, 
ar(!, to a man, thorough-going advocates of non-r(!sistance." la 
tliis resjx'ct they are like; most other in(;endiaries. Their busi- 
ness is, not defense but allack. They set the whole community 
in a blaze by their violence, — call men pirat(^s, thieves, kidnap- 
])('rs, knaves, villains, c^c. — encourage tlie blacks to rescue slaves 
from tlie hands of the pcjlice, (read tin; above extracts from the 
jiandbill) when about to be given up to their masters in obedi- 
ence to the Constitution, — but they never "resist," — oh, no! 
that would b(! most unkind and uncdiristian. Their business is 
simply to fire the train ; the explosion tlu^y leave to others. It 
is with the greatcist reluctance; that we ('.\-j)rcss ours(!lv(;s thus in 
regard to men, for some of whom we eiitcrrtain a high inspect, 
and whose motives, i. c, the motives of some of them, we have 
111) doubt are much better than those; of Saul of Tarsus, when he 
thought he did God s(;rvice by persecuting the church. But, 
situated as we are, we cannejt keep silence without being misun- 
derstood, — neither can we, as faithful sentiiuils, permit such 
inueiidiaiy proceedings to go on, without lifting up our voice 
against them. No one can be more opposed to slavery in the 
abstract than we are ; no one can be more desirous to see it 
(lone away, " as soon as it can be done peaceably and on reason- 
able terms." We are willing to be taxed to any extent in com- 
inun with the rest of the country, to indemnify slaveholders for 
their slaves, and with their consent, to set the slaves free. But 
we have no idea that this vast work can be a(;complislied by do- 
iiuiicialion, or the calling of hard nam(!s, or by opjiosiiig the only 
jiiaclieal enterprist; yet in ojieration, which looks towards the ac- 
coinplishnfKMit of so glorious a result. It is now more, than a 
year that the Abolition papers, here and in Boston, have been 
vilifying the Colonization Ho(;iety and Colonizationists, l)y a 
couiso of systematic misrepresentation whicli never had a paral- 



190 INCENDIARISM. 

lei, among papers pretending to moral honesty, since we first 
became acquainted with the newspaper press. 

Such weapons may avail temporarily, but they never can con- 
duct a righteous cause " to glory and to victory." 

But while Ave express ourselves thus fully in reprobation of the 
course pursued by the so-called Abolitionists, we wish to caution 
their opponents, whether Colonizationists or otherwise, against 
countenancing, either by word or deed, any resort to a mob police. 
We have had too much of such government of late, — and if en- 
couraged, it will eventually overwhelm us. Besides, the Aboli,- 
tionists, as citizens, have rights, which do not at all depend upon 
the correctness of their opinions, or the wisdom of their meas- 
iires. On this subject we concur with the following remarks 
from a communication which Avas sent us yesterday : ' 

" The Constitution of the United States permits the citizens of 
this land, of all creeds, complexions and parties, to assemble 
peaceably, and deliberate on subjects of interest or of grievance, 
and to labor for such issues as they may deem good. If then 
they are peaceable and orderly, and confine themselves to the 
use of the press and the tongue, no body of men has a right tp 
molest them ; and if they transcend their rights, the magistrate 
alone has the prerogative of interfering, and then they may de- 
mand a legal trial. 

" There is a Aveekly placard, displayed at the doors of Tam- 
many Hall, inviting the young and thoughtless to attend infidel 
and profligate lectures, at that place, on the Sabbath-days. 
Yet, — although the detestable principles there proclaimed, — the 
mere continuation of the Atheism of the Hall of Science, — are 
directly calculated to subvert all that is virtuous and sacred ; to 
underniiue the firm pillars of government ; and to overwhelm all 
our civil and religious liberties, our peace, prosperity, and im- 
mortal hopes, in the A^ortex of infidelity, — no mob is there assem- 
bled to oppose, or to offer the disturbance of a whisper. Nor 
Avould a friend of the liberties of his country, and much less a 
friend of religion, lift a finger to arrest the course of these de- 
luded men, except by the use of persuasion and prayers, — the 
weapons of the gospel of peace." 



REVIEW OF JAY. 191 

JAY ON COLONIZATION AND ANTI-SLAVERY. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May IG, 1835.] 

AVe opened this book with a respect transferred to it from its 
autlior, and rejoicing that now certainly \vc were in possession of 
sometliing written in good temper, witli fairness of statement and 
soundness of argument. As to the first, our anticipations are in 
a good degree reahzed. But as to the hist two, we confess we 
iyi3 disappointed. 

Tlie first part of the book is devoted of course to an attack on 
Colonization. The last is occupied with a defense of Anti-Slavery, 
technically so called. With the hitter part we shall not now in- 
terfere. We claim for Abolitionists, as we do for all Americans, 
their right to express their sentiments and give their reasons, in 
^pee(ches or in writing, in pubhc or in private, alone or in associ- 
ations, so they only do it peaceably, and as good citizens. And 
this whetht^r they be in the right or in tlic wrong, whether wise or 
foolish. Il is therefore only when Abolitionists have carried their 
war upon the community to a degree of violence which the in- 
terests of no cause could warrant, that we have felt obliged to 
resist their movements. 

In his attack upon Colonization, Mr. Jay begins with stating 
that " a powerful institution is now in operation which professes 
to be, not merely a remedy for slaveiy, but the only remedy that 
can be devised." We confess this assertion cost us half our 
confidence in the book It is totally incorrect, and has often been 
declared so. There are thousands who believe Colonization tlie 
only feasible remedy for slavery lultich has yet been devised ; and 
it has been abundantly proved that it is a possible remedy. 
Yet that practically it will be an adequate remedy remains to be 
seen. That it is " the only remedy that can be devised," no Co- 
lonizationist can claim foreknowledge enough to declare. If in 
half a dozen instances, scattered over fifteen years, the advocates 
of Colonization have in the ardor of their debate spoken at all in 
this way, their expressions have referred to the state of things 
actually existing, rather than to possible future events. But 
who ever thought before, of insisting that a thing was good for 
nothing merely because some of its enthusiastic admirers had said 
it was good for everything ? According to this mode of argu- 
ment, if once in two years some fiiend of temperance should pro- 
claim it as the only remedy for all the ills of life, tlien the Ame- 
rican Temperance Society ought to be hunted from the world. 
It is thus that Abolitionists usually attack Colonization. Tliey at- 
tach to it claims it never made, and then prove those claims ill 



192 COLONIZATION AND ANTI-SLAVERY. 

founded. They put up their own men of straw, then knock them 
over, and huzza for victory. 

The next cliarge which Mr. Jay brings, is, that the Constitu- 
tion of the American Colonization Society " has no preamble set- 
ting forth the motives which led to its adoption." This cluii-ge 
he fastens upon the Society by quoting the constitution itself. 
Certainly it is a most suspicious circumstance ! Mr. Jay thinks 
it was "probably not witliout design." Yet our wisdom was 
never deep enough to penetrate to this thought, till we found it 
in (he book. A constitution without a prcambh^. ! Let all good 
Abolitionists open both- eyes and hold up both hands ! 

The third charge is almost as bad as the second. It is, that 
men whose opinions are wide apart ■ on other subjects, come 
and act harmoniousl}^ together on this ; and that " this anomalous 
amalgamation of character and motives has necessarily led to la- 
mentable compromise of principle." Men should, then, not come 
together upon a point in which they are agreed, but upon those 
matters only about which they differ. The members of the Bible 
Society and the Tract Society ought to take this charge into seri- 
ous consideration, and make no more " anomalous amalgama- 
tions," — but the Episco})alians should talk of nothing but " Mo- 
tlier Church," the Presbyteiiaiis of the General Assembly, and the 
Methodists of the Bench of Bishops. To throw away their 
weapons of war and come together to do a good thing in which 
they are all agreed, such for instance as distributing " the Bible 
without note or comment," implies according to the argument of 
Mr. Jay "compromise of principle." It really implies only a 
compromise of ill nature. 

After going over these tangible grounds of condemnation, Mr. 
Jay turns awaj^ to search more uncertain territories. He says, 
" True it is, that the (,\)lonization Society protests against being 
judged by any but the official language of the board of managers. 
To the justice of this protest it is impossible to assent. The So- 
ciety is arraigned at the bar of public opinion, not for the object 
avoiocd in the Constitution, but for the influence it exerts in vindi- 
cating and prolonging slavery, and in augmenting the oppression 
of the free blacks." The italics are Mr. Jay's. Among the fogs 
of suspicion then, let us go in search of malign influences. It was 
a long time before it was suspected by anybody but the avowed 
advocates of slaver}', that the removal of free blacks at their own 
request to the land of their fathers, was a business of evil influ- 
ence. Some of them, to be sure, thought the establishment of 
colonies of free blacks in Africa, which should ultimately grow 
perhaps into independent and well regulated communities, was of 
dangerous tendency ; — that it ^7as making too much of the blaeks. 



REVIEW OF JAY. 193 

a,n(l would be likely to produce discontent among those who re- 
mained in slavery. The men who now compose the Anti-Slavery, 
or more properly Anti-Colonization party, were many of them for 
years the advocates of Colonization, and cliielly on the ground that 
its " influence" went to meliorate the condition of our colored 
population. At length however one of them thought he " smelt 
a rat," and within three or four years something of a party has 
been formed, of men who have opened their eyes to the delusion 
in which they were involved, and now think there is no virtue on 
earth equal to that of pulling down the work they had been so 
long and honestly building up. 

But where are the evil influences of Colonization ? It seems to 
be supposed that a sort of miasmatic atmosphere surrounds this 
undertaking, surcharged with misery and death for the poor 
negro. " A strong and very general prejudice exists against 
the free blacks," says Mr. Jay. " It is unfortunately the policy 
of the Society to aggravate this prejudice, since the more we abo- 
minate these people, the more willing we shall be to pay money 
for the purpose of getting rid of tliom." 

A charge of deeper depravity than this is not often made. 
A charge too, entirely gratuitous and without foundation. And 
Avhat proof does Mr. Jay bring to sustain his charge of dupli- 
city, falsehood and cruelty, against the best and most honor- 
able men of the nation ? Why, he quotes the speeches and 
writings of Colonizationists, in which for the purpose of moving 
the compassion of the public towards the blacks and exciting 
their fellow-citizens to make an effort to cure the dreadful evils 
connected with their condition, their degradation has been spoken 
of as it is. Among the passages quoted is the following, from 
an editorial article in the African Repository, the official journal 
of the American Colonization Society. " There is a class (free 
blacks) among us, introduced by violence, notoriously ignorant, 
degraded and miserable, incntulb/ diseased, broken spirited, acted 
upon by no motives to honorable exertion, scarcely reached in 
their debasement by the heavenly light." How " mentally dis- 
eased" must that man be, who could see duplicity, fraud and 
cruelty, in such expressions of truth and compassion ! Surely the 
missionaries who send appalling statements of the ignorance and 
wickedness around them, may better be told that they seek to 
aggravate the prejudices of Christians against their fellow-beings. 
Nay, the Bible itself is quite open to the animadversion of Aboli- 
tionists in this respect. The word prejudice Mr. Jay uses pretty 
much as demagogues use " monopoly," a mere sound to catch 
the unthinking. Some Abolitionists would almost make us think 
9 



104 COLONIZATION AND ANTI-SLAVERY. 

it a " prejudioo" to believe that negroes are blnok. It is how- 
ever not a prejudice to believe the truth, be it >vh:it it may. 

Next comes a charge that Ct^lonizatiou is unfavorable and op- 
posed to the education and elevation of the blacks. One chief 
evidence of this is. that many friends of Colonization have express- 
ed the opinion that they can never be elevated to an equality with 
the whites, or in fact to any satisfactory point in this country. 
Thus an opinion, honestly and sympathetically held by four-tifilis 
of the ])hilanthropists of our country, is metamorphosed into a 
wicked passion. 

Of course Mr. ,lay reiterates the charge that Colonization, by 
assisting the blacks to llee from the oppression they endure, be- 
comes accessory to that oppression, 'fhe argument, is this ; — 
Colonization assists free blacks to go to Liberia; in consequence of 
this, the free blacks are treated with greater severity in the States 
in which they reside, in order that they may be made wilHng to 
go. £riio. Colonization is accessory to the oppression. The ar- 
gument confounds the distinction between innocent and guiltj' 
causes. After the massacre at Southampton in Virginia, the 
free blacks were hunted and shot like wolves. They lied trem- 
bling in every direction, and Colonization stepped forth and ssiid, 
" Spare their lives, and I will take them away.'' This act Aboli- 
tionists have the stoicism to charge as a crime, and declare that 
Colonizatioi\ is guilty of the sulVerings inflicted on the blacks by 
their affrighted ]HM-secutors. If there is a climax to perversity in 
argument, it is this. 

Again, some men engaged in acts of ojipression have called 
on the name of Colonization : erijo, says Mr. Jay. Colonization was 
accessory to the crimes they committed. But time would fail us 
to mention one half of the wrong positions taken in this book. 
For in truth, there is, in our humble estimation, scarcely a para- 
graph which has not more or less of perversion. Its wholesale 
dealing with regard to facts, is quite remarkable. We have not 
space in a newspaper to go into details on this point. We may 
mention the paragraph with which he sets out as an illustration 
of the manner in which the author foregoes all regard to accu- 
racy in driving at his object. There llie number of slaves in the 
United States is put down at '2,245,144 ; and it is added, "they 
are moreover kept in ignorance, and compelled to live without 
God, and die without hope." Yet further along in the book, 
Mr. Jay puts down some hundreds of thousands of these very 
persons as savingly (>nlightened by the gospel, and on their way 
to heaven, full of hope. Such is the effect upon an honest and 
intelligent and philanthrojiic man, of giving himself up to suspi- 
cion and jealousy. His mind is carried away by airy nothings. 



REVIEW OF JAY» 195 

lie socs hob'^oblins and cliimftras diro in evory direction, but they 
have their parenta;^e in bis fancy alone. There are no opinions 
with which we have ever been conversant, which so utterly over- 
throw the mind, as those of the new sect called Abolitionists. 
They attack Colonization wi'h arrows dipt in poison and pens in 
gall, and seem to think all the furies should be raised to put it 
down. Yet ask them calmly what they have to say against " co- 
lonizing free people of color in Afnca with their own cf^nsent," 
and they answer, nothing at all. We have put this question to 
many of them, and without exception this is their answer. And 
we venture to predict that if any one will ask Mr. Jay his opinion 
of this simple matter of Colonization, Mr. Jay will answer that he 
APi'ROVKSof it. After all the great efforts of this book, its whole- 
sale statements, iLs perversions, and its unmeasured denunciation 
of the best of men, he will say that he aim'kovks of Colonization. 
What he disapproves are things of his own creating. Abolition- 
ists hatch cockatrice eggs, then fall to beating their own pro- 
geny, and if you ask them wliat they are aljout, they say they 
are lighting Colonization ! 

There is one subject in which we most cordially agree with 
Mr. Jay. It is the severity with which he reproves the conduct 
of the people of Cormecticut for their treatment of Miss Crandall 
and her school. Here were the whole powers of a State, with the 
machinery of its legislation, brought to act against a single defense- 
less woman, while the magistrates who invoked the enactment 
of laws for her oppression, stood by and winked at the violation 
of all law for her injury. Her crime was, in fact, not that she 
taught colored girls, but that .she kept her school too near the 
beautiful mansion of a man who thought himself too genteel to be 
thus annoyed. To gratify such pride it was, that the Legislature 
of Cormecticut were moved to make oppressive laws, and for the 
same purpose were men countenanced, who trod the just laws of 
Connecticut under their feet. As citizens, as men, as gentlemen, 
the whole affair is one of deep disgrace. 

In concluding an article which we could easily extend to any 
length, we have to say, there have doubtless been some errors in the 
management of the affairs of th(i Ameiican Colonization Society. 
Who from the beginning expected anything else? What human 
wisdom rises to infallibility; nay, in what untried enterprise of dif- 
ficulty like this, do not men, conscious of their ignorance, enter with 
deep anxiety, le.st their mistakes should be so great as to be ruin- 
ous? Doubtless, too, in the hundreds and thousands of speeches 
which liave been delivered, and reports and essays which have been 
written for seventeen years, many foolish and erroneous things have 
been said. These productions, though starting from Colonization, 



19G SLAA^ERY AT THE COMMUNION. 

have spread in all diivotions, and inidudod all the various opinions 
of their authors u])ou the deeply iulerestino; subject of our colored 
population. With a oieat ileal of what has been written, Coloni- 
zation has really as little to do. as had the resolution of Mr. 
Foote, in the Senate of the United States on the public lands, to do 
with the mighty speeches on the tarilf and nullitication, and every- 
thino- else, which ao-itated our political councils at that time, jind 
which were made upon that resolution. Ihit deductino- all which 
in fairness ought to be deducted of this sort. Colonization is a 
noblo cause, its olfects already have been g-ood beyond estima- 
tion. It has pioneered the way to deliverance, both for the white 
and the black races of oiu- country, from the curse of slaveiy. 
If others have other plans, let them be presented. Colonization 
•will not hinder. But who are you, Abolitionists, that you should 
set up that your remedj'- is " the onlif remedy that can be devis- 
ed?" AVho are you, that you should attempt to overthrow such 
a cause as you assail ? WIio are you, that you should accuse 
Mills and Ashmun of beconiini;- martyrs to establish cruelty and 
deceit ? Who are you ? What have you done for the negro ? 
Talk you of how few Colonization has liberated and raised to the 
rank of men ? Where is 0)u' upon whom yon have conferred 
like favors ? 



SbAYF.RV AT Till'] COMMUNION. 
[./•>•()>« the Journal of Coniniiicr, Jinic 20, 18m5.] 

At a preliminary meeting of the Anli-Sla\'ery Society in Bos- 
ton, on the evening- of the 25th ult., the following resolution was 
nnanimousli/ adopted : — 

7»«'.svj/i'<(/, That in tlie opinion of tliis convention, one of the most 
clTectual means lUKler Uoil to per.stiadc the slavelioliler to " p;otlly 
sorrow " for his sin, in (le'i;railin>'' (uhI's image, anil to brin^ slavery 
to a si^eeily and blessed termination, is for the cluiroli everywhere to 
cxeUule from her eomnninion jukI privileges, all those who claim ami 
hold their fellow-men as property. 

There is in this city, a lady of eminent piety, the widow of a 
clergyman, who lately resided in Virginia, but who was well 
known and loved through the whole country, and whose useful- 
ness extended through every State. That gentleman was the 
owner of slaves, and they have fallen into the possession of his 
widow, who has made arrangements for their manumission. 
These arrangements have been made with a conscientious regard 
to the best interests of the slaves, and in conformity to^ the 



ABOLITIONISM AT ANDOVER. 197 

Golden Rule. Acting with these motives, she has fixed a future 
day for the freedom of lier slaves, and of course, up to the time 
when her arrangements take effect, she is excluded from the 
communion, and all the privileges of the churches ; but the next 
day she may enjoy them. Wlien men pay the expense of spread- 
ing a table, they may well invite or exclude whom they please. 
It seems but reasonable, that the same liberty should be allowed 
to Him who has been at the expense of spreading the table in 
question. We are getting to have plenty of churches of temper- 
ance, and churches anti-masonic, and churches of anti-slavery. 



ABOLITION. 

\^From the. Journal of Commerce, July 28, 1835.] 

It is rumored that George Thompson, the imported agitator, 
having completed his assault upon the Theological Seminary at 
Andover, is about to make a similar attack upon Amherst Col- 
lege. Is there no law by which our literary and theological 
institutions can be protected against such outrages, especially 
from foreigners ? At Andover, we understand, he or his co- 
agitators lectured .seventeen eveninf^s in succession ; the whole 
object of their mission being to excite an insurrection among the 
students against the Faculty on the subject of Abolition. These 
worthy men had endeavored to keep the controversy out of the 
Institution ; and to avoid any pretext for its introduction, the 
Colonization Society in the Seminary had submitted to a volun- 
tary extinction. But it all would not answer. Accordingly a 
regular siege was laid to the Institution, by Thompson, Phelps 
& Co., and with the tactics of discipUnarians they contracted 
their approaches till tliey finally got into a grove near the Insti- 
tution, where they held foith to some of the students, — the 
Faculty still persisting in their determination to exclude them 
from the walls. The language wliich they used on various occa- 
sions in respect to the Faculty was abusive and disgusting. 
What other society, pretending to be guided by Christian prin- 
ciples, ever trampled under foot the rules of propriety and com- 
mon decency, as the Abolition Society has done, and is habitu- 
ally doing ? It is not enough to scatter firebrands all over the 
land ; to sow the seeds of insuri-ection and bloodshed ; to rivet 
the chains of the slave so tightly tliat all the wisdom of the wise, 
and all the philanthropy of the benevolent, may not be able to 
unloose them ; hut lest there should be one spot uncontaminated 
by tlujir pestiferous influence, they invade the sanctuaries of 



lOS DISSOLUTION OF T II F, I^ N I O N . 

loarniiiiX .ind rolii^ion. juul exhort tho stiuloiits to robol iiirninst 
Ihoir kiiul atul faithful instruoti>»"s ! The spirit, of radioahsm and 
ins\iboiilination whioh is inhoront in the system of AboHtion as 
now preaohoil wouKl overturn the institutions of society every- 
whoiv. and biiui;- in an a^e of anaivhy over which anij;els might 
woop. Hut thanks to the intellioonce and moderation of our 
counti-ymen. tl\ey will not loiio- yield then\selves to such deplora- 
ble ouidance. '('here is a redeemin<^ spirit in the land, and esjH>- 
cially in New Kti<;land. which will ere long restore things to 
their proper ei|uilibnuni. Tliere is a light there, >Yhich will 
soon dispel the fogs and darkness that perverted elotpience has 
created. And here we wish to ask our respected New Knoland 
friends who disapprove of the measures of the Abolitionists, 
whether it is not time to exert their intluence in a more direct 
antl ilecidcd manner than they have hitherto dt>ne, with a view 
to the more speedv obo/iiioii of this impracticable bundle o( ab- 
sunlities which has been concocted under the idea of its being a 
remeily for slavery ! The disease has been permitted to run till 
the tokens of otssoia'tu^n are clearly seet\ in prospect, — dissolu- 
tion, not of slavery, but of tiik Union. And when that is done, 
we shall have lost tho hold which we now have upon tho South 
by political ties and social intluence, and the prospects of tho 
slave will be rendereil more hopeless than ever. How much 
would the conditioi\ and prospects of the slaves in the British 
AVest Imlies have been improved by a (ftssohtiion of the union 
between those colonies and the mother country ? We will not 
insult the undei-standings of our readers by a rej^ly 



EXCITEMENT AT THE NOUTll AND AT THE SOUTH. 
[From tfic Journal of Connncrcr, .lugiist 7. lSo5.] 

Witii.K the better discretion of the North is engaged in counter- 
acting the violent ell'orts of fanatics here, we (u\d ourselv(>s assail- 
ed by fanatics in the South, not less deserving of rebuke. The 
threat of separating the l^nion. which had scarcely died away 
since the settlement of the tariff question, is revived, and made 
again to stalk abroad to atVright us. It is a cry we always dis- 
like, come whence it will. To our eai's it speaks ill of the patri- 
otism of those who make it. and their readiness to adhere in good 
faith to the compacts of the Constitution. That instrument was 
not drawn up witi\ the untlerstanding that each State should either 
have its own way ii\ all things, or throw up the bargain. That 
would have been childish. Our fathers Jigived to trust then\- 



D I H H O L U T I O N OK T 11 K U N T O N . 1 09 

BC'!v<rR to tlir; working of the ^n-at inKtrumcnt they had framed, 
and ahide the resuh,. 'J'o sound tlie cry of dissolution as the 
grand argunrient on all rjerasioris of disHatisfaetion, i.s neither juHt 
nor nnanly. Koin'tiiitif^ like a diiHolution of the Union has f;een 
attempted once hy the NullifierH, and it was found to he an exeeed- 
'"o'y fiwkvvard husin<;:-is. J'olil.ieianH were never more puzzled 
than were thoHe of iSoutli Carolina in framinj^ a nullifyinf^ HyKtem. 
'I'lie remedy, thou;^h pretty <!n()Ugh on paper, was found far 
from " pcaceahle" in practice. In the pre.s<;nt case there, Ih no 
pr(!t<!n8e for K(;paratiori which lias the semblance of BoundncsH. 
Thfj movementH of which the Houtli cojnplains are made by a 
portion of the community Uio small to implicate the whole, espc- 
cially a.H a great majority think with the Houth tliat the course of 
northern fanatics is wrong, and are doing not a little to counter- 
act it. The Richmond Whig says the Houth is entitled to legisla- 
tive interference for preventing the manufacture in the northern 
cities of those missiles which assail its Iranijuillity. Is it pos/iible 
(asks the Whig) that the pf>wer f»f the States is not adequate to 
the suppression of causes of offense against a sister HtaUi, which 
between foreign States would \)f',juHt cauHe of viar'f 

We shall adopt no such rnfjasures as tlie Whig rccommendH. 
The thing is as impracticaf>le as the plans of the A bf>litionists. We 
reanon errors down in this part of the country, except that now 
and then of late years we have tried a mob. I5ut the new pro- 
cess has befm found to work exactly by contraries, and wc; hope 
will never be tried again, i'y the process of reasoning we have 
brought the Abolitionists to a stand; by the same process, with 
the favor of Providence, (if the South will let us alone,) will wc 
entirely deprive them of any power to do mischief. Jt is about 
two years since the Garrison sect assumed consequence enough 
to attract public attention, and we dare engage its race, is full lialf 
run. We acknowledg(! that we think the South has reason to 
complain loudly, and to be in some measure alarmed > for the 
effects of the inflammatory conduct of the furious Abolitionists; 
and if their course should ever come to be pursued by the great 
mass of northern men, tlie South would have reason to look about 
for re,inedies. perhaps evcm for those which are violent. JJut why 
should the South be separated from its friandis ; horn a commu- 
nity an immense majoiity of whom are for repressing all vio- 
lenc(; ? Why take such a course merely to revenge the doings of 
a small minority ? 

J'ut if the case of right were ni',ver so yjlain, how is the sepa- 
ration of the States to be a remedy for the wrongs of which the 
South com|)hiins? How would that check the effects of inc(;ndi- 
ary meetings, and spe,cche8, and books? in the case of the tariff", 



200 DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION. 

we could see how a dissolution of the Union would dissolve the 
tariff. But in the present case we do not see v.iiat possible rela- 
tionship there is between the disease and the reniody. If the 
Union were severed, no territory would be annihilated. The 
countiT north of Mason and Dixon's line would still exist, and 
the Abolitionists would be as thick in it as before. The necessi- 
ties of communication by mail would not be lessened, nor do wo 
see that in any way anything would be accomplished for the se- 
curity of the South. On the contrary we can see that mucli of 
the security they now possess would be taken away. In the first 
place, the disposition to .stand by the South, and by all proper 
means to discountenance and oppose the violent measures of 
which she complains, would be cooled by the consciousness that 
by the separation she had grossly \iolated her duty and her con- 
stitutional obligations. The constitutional pledge by which all 
the States are bound to assist in the suppression of insurrection 
whenever it may occur, and to restore fugitives, would be at an 
end. Indeed we see nothing but loss to the South by the despe- 
rate measure which we are sorry to hear so freely talked of. It 
Avould be a loss irreparable to all the States, compensated by no 
good, — no, not the smallest, to any one of them. Why then, in the 
absence of all motives but the restlessness of passion, should we 
talk so freely of proving ourselves unAvorthy of our birth-right, — 
recreant to the inheritance which our fathers purchased for us 
Avith their blood ? 

The recent violence upon the post-office at Charleston, and the 
sacrifice of human life in Mississippi upon the charge of conspi- 
racy, will have a very bad inlluence at the North. If the violent 
measures of northern Abolitionists have, as was stated by the 
Richmond Whig, destroyed the Abolition party in Virginia, t-uch 
events as have recently transpired at the South and West, will 
have a similar tendency to paralyze the efforts of those at the 
North who would put down the fanatics around them. As to the 
doings in IMississippi, there is not yet before the jnihlic any evi- 
dence that the supposed conspiracy is not wholly and solely a 
thing of heated imaginations. The confessions of men under tor- 
ture are entitled to similar account with the watery ordeal by 
which witchcraft is wont to be tested. Yet has human life been 
sported with, and the agonies of sufferers, condemned by no legal 
iiwestigation, mocked and deiided. Northern citizens have been 
hung up without anything which deserves the name of trial. If 
it is expected that such cold-blooded violations of law and 
justice will meet with sympathy at the North, it is a great mis- 
take. And if sucli measures are to be continued, we despair of 
opposing Abolitionists with success. But if we may be left to the 



LYNCH LAW. 201 

fair warfare of argument, northern intelligence and integrity will 
soon frown them into silence. But alas, for the poor negro ! — 
What is he to do in such a conflict ? If the Abolitionists have 
any compassion where they pretend so much, we pray them to 
pause in their cruel career. 



OVER-ACTING AGAINST ABOLITIONISTS. 

\_FroTn the Journal of Commerce, August YJ , 1835.] 

Our condemnation of the doctrines and measures of Immediate 
Abolitionists must not lead us to give countenance to errors on 
the other extreme. Such is the pretense that the question of sla- 
very may not be discussed at the North. Such also is the doctrine 
which makes every one of the 10,000 postmasters in the United 
States a censor of the press. And such, above all, is the plan of 
hanging suspected persons at the South, without form of trial. 
There is reason to beheve that innocent persons have already been 
sacrificed in this way in Mississippi. It seems incredible that 
such a mode of discriminating justice or rather injustice, should 
be publicly approved and advocated by respectable men. That 
in the heat of excitement and under apprehension of danger, in- 
stances of the kind should occur, is not indeed strange, however 
much to be condemned and deplored. But that men professing 
to be guided by reason and by lav/, should in tlieir cooler mo- 
ments, sanction such a system of murder, would, we repeat, seem 
to us incredible, were it not forced upon us by the evidence of 
our senses. There is the editor of the United States Telegraph, 
a gentleman and a professed Christian, yet in a paragraph which 
we copy elsewhere, he publicly expresses his regret that Cran- 
dall, wlio was arrested in Washington on a charge of circulating 
Abolition pamphlets, had not been put to death on the spot in- 
stead of being handed over as he was, to the penalty of the laws ! 
Does not the editor see that his doctrine is more bloody than that 
of Nero ? The latter when first desired to sign his name to a list 
of malefactors who were to be executed in conformity to law, ex- 
claimed, " I wish to heaven I could not write." But the editor 
of the Telegraph laments, not only that blood was not shed, but 
that it was not shed without law and in defiance of law. And the 
same doctrine has been avowed by many others. Does not the 
Constitution guarantee to every " criminal" — not innocent persons 
merely but to every criminal — the right of trial by jury ? When 
therefore the Telegraph advocates what it calls " summary jus- 
tice," in cases like that of Crandall, it advocates murder in the 



202 RADICALISM. 

eye of the law and of reason, and pours contempt upon the Con- 
stitution undor whicli wo live. 

If Ave oould make our voice heard over the whole South, we 
would tell thoni, that they are in danger of ovcr-actim;/ in this 
matter; t. c. if their object is to prevent the spread of Abolition 
principles. Public sentiment at the North has changed rapidly 
against the doctrines of the Abolitionists witliin the last few weeks, 
and unless the conduct of tlio South sliould be so violent as to 
create a reaction, there will be a chance, before long, for some- 
body to ring the funeral knell of the system, as our friend 
Ludlow was going to do, some time ago, in the case of tlj/o Colo- 
nization Society. 



THE WORK GOES BRAVELY ON. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, October 3, 1837.] 

The Boston Liberator of Friday is stutfed with communications, 
resolutions of Anti-Slavery Societies, ttc, denouncing the " Ap- 
peal" put forth by Rev. Messrs. Fitch and Towne. Abolitionists, 
of Boston, against the destruction of the Sabbath, the Clergy, the 
Church, civil government and family government, and against the 
claims of the Abolitionists to thrust their inllaramatory notices into 
a minister's pulpit contrary to his known wislies, whenever the op- 
]->ortunily is atVorded. by means of ministerial exchanges or other- 
wise. The " Appeal" ari-ogates nothing tn the clergy but rights 
essential to their othcial existence : and until tlie laboi-s of the Abo- 
litionists began to enligliten society into its privileges and duties, 
.such a dociuncnt would have been considered tame, if not latitudi- 
narian. We therefore notify the disciples of Faimy ^^'riglu. Robert 
Dale Owen, and all other intidels and radicals in morals, that while 
their cause in this quarter is apparently on the wane, light has 
s]n-ung up for them in the Ea.-t, fast by the graves of the Pil- 
grims. Go and refresh yourselves with its beams. Yoke your- 
selves to the cai- of Abt)lition. Doubtless you shall be jiromoted 
to honor ; yea doubtless, by this new and powerful machinery, 
you shall accomplish vastly more for the destruction of the insti- 
tutions of religion, than you have hitherto been able to achieve. 
Let us give you the watch-words ; they will speak music to your 
souls. Listen : 

" Down with the Sabbath. 

" Down with the Clergv. 

" Down with the Church and the Sacrament. 

" Down with Civil Coxernment. 

"Down with Familv Covernment." 



THE ALTON U I O T . 203 

These will do to be^iri with ; thou<,'h then; are others into which 
you will he initiated in due time. 

We wish not to he misunderstood. We do not say that all 
Abolitionists accord with these sentiments; for we know it is 
otherwise. But we do say, and we can prove, that every one of 
the doctrines named has been embraced in the teachings of Abo- 
lition Agents, and propagated at the expense of Abolition Socie- 
ties. 



THE ALTON RIOT. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, JVovemJjcr 24, 1837.] 
******%% 
Bl't what we designed more particularly to speak of, when we 
began, was the pertinacity with which the Abolitionists pressed 
the measure which led to the riot. We admit that nothing which 
they did, or could do, would juHtifi/ the riot, and of course that 
from beginning to end it was an outrage of the most flagrant cha- 
racter. It was both a breach of law and an invasion of right. 
On a former occasion we expressed our views in regard to it more 
at hmgth. We have no wish to abate anything of the severity 
with which we then denounced the transaction. IJut at the same 
time we must say, that in spite of laws and rights, in spite of the 
sanctions of the Constitution, in spite (it may be) of the claims of 
justice and humanity, unlawful resistance will always be liable to 
follow unj^ielding pertinacity in pressing measures of supposed re- 
form, in opposition to a strong public sentiment. There is need 
of wisdom and moderation in the furtherance even of the most 
desirable reforms. Time, place, and circumstances, must be con- 
sulted. " Expediency," a much abused word and thing, must be 
restored to its proper place in men's thoughts. They must 
remember that they can exercise all their constitutifjnal rights 
without coming into collision. A. has a constitutional right fo 
walk the street ; so has B. They both have a constitutional right 
to walk in such part of the street appropriated to foot passen- 
gers, as they please. But if one chooses to take just that part of 
the walk which the other does, and if both insist upon their pre- 
ference, they will come into collision ; and bloody noses or some- 
thing worse will probably be the consequence. A little forbear- 
ance and concession on both sides, — a little waiving of their con- 
stitutional rights — would have obviated all the difficulty. So it is 
in matters of greater concern. Men must be gentle in their feelings 
and conduct, if they would get along without trouble. They 
must be mindful of the rights and feelings, and even the preju- 



204 T 11 K ALTON RIOT. 

dicos of ofliors. Wo do not ask tlu'in to compromise principlo, 
tliough wf l)('n' llu'in to (listinyuisli hctwoon a steadfast adherence 
to principle, and a stubborn self-will. Men of ardent tempera- 
ment, when they have once committed themselves to a cause, 
want to take the whole world alonij^ with them; and marvel that 
all will not come at once. Some of them have a leaven of jiride 
too ; a zeal to be reformers; and not unfrequently they attempt 
to imitate (he course and maimer of some successful reformer 
whom they have in their eye. In such cases they very commoidy 
over-act. Ijulher, for instance, could do many things which 
'i'iiomas Thumb cannot ; even though the latter should imagine 
himself a second Lutiier. We hope (hat the di'])lorabIe liols and 
mob-murders, of which we have had so many e.xaniples within a 
year or (wt) past, in did'erent parts of the country, Avill arouse the 
community to (he adoption of (he most oflicient measures for the 
prevendon and punishment of such outrages in future, and also 
impart a lesson to those who need it, of the indispensal)lc neces- 
sity of prosecuting even unquestionably good en(erprises, which 
bear upon public sentiment, Avith wisdom and moderation. 



TITF, ALTON VJOT. 
[/'V(>»i the Joiinin/ of Commerce, llt'crmhrrl , ISI]?,] 

A CoRUKsi'ONiiicNT iu allusit^n to (he Al(ou alVair, inquires " if an 
editor of a newspaper, or any man engaged in a lawiul business, 
must ask permission of any people (o pursue his business among 
them." Not unless he chooses to do so. In most cases, he would. 
wish to consult them, and endeavor to secure their coiiporadon. 
Yet if he failed in this, — nay, if he found (he peojile united as one 
man in opposing him and his under(aking, — he might s(ill go 
ahead and es(ablish his paper if he chose. There is nothing in the 
Constitution or laws to prevent it. These instruments, on the 
contrary, ha\e guaranteed (he perfect freeilom of the press and 
of the tongue. The editor's undertaking, in the case supposed, 
is a "lawful" one. He has a " constitutional right" to carry it 
forward. 1 kit av hat then ? ''All things are lawful," almost, — 
" but all things are not expedient." It is lawful to sell rum, and 
to do a groat many other foolish and wicked things. The Consti- 
tution has thrown the doors wide open in regard to civil rights ; 
in doing which, it presupposed a certain degree of moderation on 
the part of the people. Unfortunately it presupposed what does 
not always exist. A moment's retlection would convince any rea- 
sonable man that all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution 



Till', RKilir () I' I'KTiriON. 205 

cannot be exercised, except under restrictions as to time, place 
and circumstancos. The same (constitution whicli authorizes tlio 
freedom of spiuicli and of the press in Illinois and iVTiissMchu- 
sctts authori/(!s it also in South Carolina and Mississippi. Why 
tluMi, if the Abolitionists are deti^rmincd to insist on all their (;on- 
s(itntion;il rii;'hts without restriction, do tluiy not establish a ])ress 
in one of tlu; last mentioned Statt^s ? Are they afraid of bciiij^ 
mobbed? What! Do we not live under a irovernnu'iit of laws? 
And are they not competent to the protection of ix pcaccithh: citi- 
zen enirajred in a lairfal busiiu^ss ? No, friend, they are not ; and 
"\vh;it is more, they never will b(\ luitil the s(;it(( of soci(tty is radi- 
cally chani^^id. W(i may complain as loudly and as bitterly as 
Ave please, that we cannot (!X(^rcise our constitutional rijrhis in such 
cases, — yet th(! fact remains imtdianifed ; we cannot. An army 
of 100, 000 men could not make it otherwise. Instead tlu^n 
of turninL,^ the world upside down because^ we <%aiuiot do as 
Ave please in all things, it Avould be well for us to considcir 
Avhether our pleasure is not somcitimes our folly and our sin. Is 
it W///tn"or us habitually to strain the Constitution toburslini^? 
Is it Avise ? Is it prudent? Shall W(! ever ifci a better one, if 
this is destrov(!(i ? 

By the way, nobody is more sensilive to what they call the 
a})uses of tlu! j)ress, than the Abolitionists. If anythiiit^ is said 
au;aiiist th(')ii,, it is a drciadful thinir, — a delil)(>rat»^ attempt to j^ctt 
uj) a mob, ttc. Vet a course of conduct pursu(!d by thems(dv(\s, 
Avhich tluiy know will rc^sidt in a, mob, is perf(U',tly harmless, — 
nay, highly meritorious. Their right to the liccMitious use; of the 
lonirue and th(! press is sacred ; another man's right to the sanu) 
things is the higlTt of presumj)tion. 



Till-] RKIIIT OK PMTITION. 
[From the Joxtrnul of Commerce, January 125, 1838.] 

\v our rights are Avhat they should be, thcji it is best to pre- 
serve them just as they are ; and if Ave would preserve them, 
Ave must understand them accurately, so as neith(!r to make less 
of them, nor more, than we intended. It is always the effect of 
extending one right too broadly, that it trenches upon and dimin- 
ishes another, either of our own or some other person. The 
right of ])etition is just Avhat the phrase imports ; and not the 
right to control the acition of the power to Avhoni the j)etition is 
sent. The citizens of the country are secured in this right by 
the Constitution. That instrument, in its amendments, declares 



206 THE RIGHT or petition. 

that " Congress shall make no law" for the purpose of prevent- 
ing the citizens from petitioning. AVell, Congress have made no 
law on this subject ; and tliore is nothing in the way of sending 
as many petitions to Congress as anybody pleases. Any man, 
woman or cliild, can send up a petition for the same thing, every 
day through tlie whole session of Congress ; and that too with- 
out the payment of postage, or fees, or expenses of any sort. 
Certainly, then, when people, under such circumstances, com- 
plain that they are deprived of the right to petition, they must 
mean something wliich the Constitution does not, and ought not 
to secure. We say ought not, for obviously the only thing 
which the Constitution ought to secure, is the right of combina- 
tion, and arrangement, and organization, according to the peo- 
ple's pleasure. The grand object of tyrants is to prevent the 
popular will from being strengthened by organization and consul- 
tation. A tyi'ant will not allow his subjects to assemble to dis- 
cuss political toj)ics, or circulate petitions, or in any way act in 
concert, and so strengthen themselves against their oppressor. 
The Constitution intends to secure to the inhabitants the full 
right to combine as much as they please, and in all possible 
ways ; to talk and write, as loud and as long, as wisely and as 
foolishly, as violently and as calmly, as they please ; and stops 
them not until they take up arms, or in some way resort to phy- 
sical force. If they do this, the Constitution sends them to pri- 
son ; for the use of physical force interferes with the right of all 
other persons to write and talk. 

But, it is said, " what possible value can there be in the right 
of petition, if, after all. Congress are not obliged to give the 
least heed to our jn^aycrs, not even to read them* and know what 
they are ?" True enough ; what use is there in drawing up long 
arguments, if Congress will not be convinced by them ? What 
use in a long array of signatures, if Congress will not be influenced 
by them ? What use in petitioning, if our petitions are not granted ? 
Tliere is all the use whicli an intelligent freeman can desire. The 
right of petition, as some untlerstand it, would resolve our republic 
into a democracy of the most disorderly kind. Every citizen, by 
virtue of the right of petition, would then become a member of 
Congress, and even moi'e than a member ; for he would possess 
the prior I'iglit to make motions and aigue topics. If every peti 
tion must of right be considered, this would be the result. Con- 
gress have always done what they pleased with petitions. The 
usual place of jmtting tiiose to rest which it is not desirable to 
act upon, is in the hands of a committee ; but of this. Congress 
is to judge for itself. Any other rule than that which gives 
Congress the entire control over petitions after they are pre- 



THE RIGHT OF PETITION. 207 

sented, would be inconsistent with those provisions of the Consti- 
tution which confer on Congress their powers ; inconsistent with 
itself ; inconsistent with the transaction of business by Congress ; 
inconsistent with everything which has order or propriety about 
it. With these sentiments, we cannot help thinking- tliat the 
very respectable meeting of young gentlemen at Clinton Hall, last 
Monday night, mistook the true state of the case when they 
passed the following resolution, viz : — 

Resolved, That the resolution of the House of Representatives, oflFered 
by Mr. Patton, of Virginia, and passed on the 21st December last, de- 
claring that certain petitions " be laid on the table ivithout being deba- 
TEn, printed, read, or referred, and that no further action whatever 
shall be had thereon," is a palpable violation of the riglits of petition and 
debate, exhibits an unjustifiable and indecorous contempt for the opin- 
ion of a portion of our fellow-citizens, is dangerous as a precedent for 
innumerable abuses of a similar nature, unconstitutional, and sul)vcr- 
sivc of the very principles upon whicli our government is founded. 

In our humble judgment, the resolution of Mr. Patton does 
not touch at all the right of petition ; and the only ground upon 
which it can be assailed successfully, is, not that of constitu- 
tional right, but of propricity and expediency. Congress, beyond 
all question, we think, had the full right to adopt that resolution 
if they deemed it expedient. That it was expedient, we shall 
not say. But we do say that there was pressing necessity for 
some measure that should allay the excitement in Congress, and 
restore such calmness among the members as that the public 
business could receive attention. The reading and printing of 
the petitions would liave made great expense of time and money, 
and could not, by any possibility, have enabled the members of 
Congress to understand the subject better tlian before. 'J'here 
is no pretense that the petitions contained a single idea Avhich 
had not been fully before tlie blouse a hundred times before. 
Tluiy all prayed for the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia ; a measure Avhich Congress had with great unanimity 
resolved that it was inexpedient to adopt. These petitions were 
s(!Mt in, more for the sake of producing excitement and agitation, 
tiian for the purpose of convincing anybody. They furnished 
the means of indulgence to the scolding propensities of J. Q. 
Adams, and helped him to set Congress on fire daily, as Nero 
did Rome, for his amusement. We think the sport reprehen- 
sible in the highest degree, unpatriotic, and dangerous. Since 
the adoption of Mr. Patton's resolution, comparative quiet has 
been restored to Congress, and that body has attended to better 
business, though wc cannot say that they have brought any 
great good to pass. 



208 THE IIIGHT OF PETITION. 

The Abolitionists are now trying, as tluMr last shift, to continue 
the storm thov have raised, (and which, but tor some new expe- 
dient, must subside.) by reviving old animosities against the 
South. Our southern brethren are high-toned, ami ottentnnes 
rash. They do not endure provocations with the Christian cha- 
rity nor the calm magnanimitv which would be to their credit. 
They have been wronged most deeply, nwst ungenerouslv. most 
wickedly, by the Abolitionists. We caution our fellow-citi/AMis 
agtxinst being drawn into the plans of the agit-iUors, upon this 
most unpatriotic and dangerous ground, of opposition to the 
fiery temper of the South. Let the North be iii-st just, and 
then, if possible, generous. Sectional prejudices have been here- 
tofore fostered by political aspirants, and will be again. But it 
is a diuigerous game. The Father of his countiy warned us on 
this head. All our sages liave done the same. 

As to the abolition of slavery in the Distiict of Columbia, desi- 
rable as in our estimation it is, there is no hope of it, until the 
Abolition fury has blown over, and calmness and kindness are 
restored. The only way for the judicious and real friends of 
that measure is, to wait the returning current of events, which 
shall set us back where we were seven years ago, when we our- 
selves could advocate the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and in all the South, with some hope of usefulness; 
when in Virginia. !Marylaiul. and Kentucky, the abolition of 
slavery was freely advocated by the best and ablest men of those 
States. l)ut their n\ouths are closed now, though we trust not 
forever. We trust the day is not far distant, when the greatest 
danger of our country, its most crying sin, its deepest disgrace, 
juhI its most blighting curse, shall again become, as it always 
ought to be. the theme of our anxious and earnest, yet kir.d and 
patient deliberation. The first step toward such a state of 
things, is to stop the broad and deep current of vituperation and 
slander which is ever tlowing from the North to the South, and 
which, instead of producing the effect intended, exasperates to 
madness those who have the sole constitutional control over the 
subject in the States — the slaveholders, — and brings them at 
once into an attitude of detiance. If tliis is the way to abolish 
slavery, our judgment is strangely perverted. 



PENNSYLVANIA HALL. 209 

PHILADELPHIA ABOLITIONISTS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May 19, 1838.] 

TriR City of Brotherly Love lias boon kcjjt in a pretty consider- 
;iblo formont for two or throo days past, by the presence of the 
(lonrral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, who had s<jme 
i(>\x<^\\ (juestions to settle ; and especially by the sudden appear- 
ance of a petticoat convention, black and white, assembled from 
parts unknown. Then there was the dedication of Agitation 
ilall, in which the convention held their sittings. Such was the 
occupancy of the hall on the day previous to its destruction ; we 
mean it wiis occupied by the petticoat convention ; and on the 
evening previous, three women, besides William Lloyd Garrison, 
held forth to a very promiscuous assembly of 3000 persons. Now • 
we suppose it would be highly improper for us to express any 
doubt v/lu!th(!r such conduct is becoming the modesty which 
ought to l)(;long to the female sex, — and which does belong to a 
good pait of tliem, — for we have learned by experience, that 
any disapprobation, even the slightest, of the conduct of the Abo- 
litionists, in a time of excitement against them, is interpreted into 
a direct encouragement of the mob. For ourselves, we disap- 
prove both of the mob and the causes of it. We do not say we 
disapprove of the two things equally ; for they do not exactly 
admit of comparison. An open violation of the decencies and 
proprieties of !if(; is not in all respects so bad as burning a house ; 
yet it is no bad, and productive of so much mischief, that the per- 
petrators, especially if women, ought to hide their heads with 
shame, lieally, we have fallen upon beautiful times, when white 
dandies with spectacles, and black wenches, — and black dandies 
"with white wenches, — must show themselves off in our most pub- 
lic promenades, walking arm in arm ; and in our churches, min- 
gled like the squares on a checker board ; and when women, (0 
that the Apostle Paul would come among us,) with more brass 
than men can readily command, are seen holding forth to large pro- 
miscuous assemblies, or traveling hundreds of miles to meet in 
convention ! 



THE ABOLITIONISTS. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, May 29, 18.38.] 

Wk shall prf)bably have occasion to use this captioa but a few 
times more. The meteor has passed across our planet with a 
scorching heat which burned its own hair, and has at last explod- 
ed, and the fragments are fast losing their power of conflagration. 



210 THE ABOLITIONISTS. 

It has been rather a wonderful affair upon the whole. A few 
violent spirits, led on by Garrison, a man of talents and perseve- 
rance and vindictive hate, came forth as the opponents of slavery 
in a community the freest in the world, whose grandfathers had 
abolished slavery with the utmost detestation of the thing, — a 
detestation which has descended in full force to their posterity. 
On the capital of this universal sentiment they have contrived to 
carry on a pretty large trade of agitation, by getting themselves 
up as above all the champions who would lead on the people to 
the gratification of their dislike of slavery. In the progress of 
their warfare, they have not distinguished themselves as the op- 
ponents of slavery ; that was impossible. But they have distin- 
guished themselves by their furious denunciations of everybody 
who did not instantly fall down and worship the idol which they 
had set up ; by their disregard of all Christian and gentlemanly 
courtesy ; by the fallacious modes of reasoning which they adopt- 
ed ; by the axioms which they laid down as fundamental tniths, 
almost all of which had some admixture of palpable error ; and 
perhaps above all, by their perversion of the king's English, which 
they carried so far as to make a dialect for themselves, which a 
common English scholar could by no means understand. After 
a long dispute about the propriety of the immediate abolition of 
slavery, you would find that hnviediate meant only doing some- 
thing now with the hearty purpose of putting an end to slavery 
at some day far ahead ; and perhaps you would find at last, that 
the furious advocate of immediate emancipation was really for 
making a much longer process of it than yourself. " Slavehold- 
er" does not with them mean a holder of slaves, but a holder of 
slaves with mere mercenary designs ; whereas, a man may hold 
slaves never so many and never so long, if only he would adopt 
their notions about the light of the case, and then he is no 
slaveholder at all. The Catholic doctrine of intention was every- 
thing with them. 

At first, the matter was much misunderstood by many persons, 
and the more, because some, and even most of these violent spi- 
rits, had made high professions of piety, and had in fact been as- 
sociated in many good things. Their sophistry confounded some. 
They made a syllogism thus : They said ; Is not slavery a sin ? 
Yes. Ought not all sin to be immediately repented of? Yes. 
Well then, they exclaimed, ought not the sin of slavery to be imme- 
diately repented of and abandoned ? This they would say with a 
self-complacent sneer of triumph, as if such logic must shut up all 
mouths ; and yet in their public documents and private conver- 
sations, they declared themselves unconvinced by it, and that sla- 
very ought not to be immediately abolished. It was not every 



THE ABOLITIONISTS. 211 

one wlio could see where the fallacy of this logic lay ; and only 
those who had become familiar with the use of tlie cut and thrust 
sword could slash it open and show its falsity so plainly as to 
shut up the declaimer's mouth. With furiousness and unfairness, 
and vindictivencss, and some other evil things, these men con- 
tinued to iri'itate the lower classes, and to get up mobs in several 
instances, while they compelled tlie more thinking and substan- 
tial part of the community to take their stand in opposition both 
to the Abolitionists, who violated all moral and conventional laws, 
and to the mob, who violated the civil and statute codes. Some, 
from their detestation of the mobs, were carried over to join the 
Abolitionists entirely. Generally, when there was personal danger 
to be feared from the mob, the Abolitionists took their lives in their 
hands, and cleai-ed out, leaving the storm they had raised to be 
calmed by the sensible part of their opponents, and then they usu- 
ally charged the getting up of the mob upon the men who Iiad put 
it down. We remember no one except Lovejoy, who has put 
himself in the breach. The result with him has done nothing to 
inspire others. In Philadelphia, the morning after their Hall was 
burned, they held a solemn meeting in front of the ashes, and ad- 
journed sine die. 

It was evident from the beffinninof, that this sect must be short- 
lived. They lived on violent passions, and their only hope was 
in agitation and fury. But violent passion is always of short du- 
ration. Another mortal deficiency in their plan was the want of 
any tangible end to be accomplished. This is always necessary 
in order that men should be long kept together. The Abolition 
agitators could not, in the nature of the case, have any such end, 
the accomplishment of which they could see going on. They 
have expended some half million of dollars, it may be, in all, in 
printing pamphlets and newspapers, and sending agents all over 
the free States to convert people to Abolitionism who in every 
good sense were already better Abolitionists than themselves. 
The labor was only beating the air. Besides all this, it was evi- 
dent that the accumulation of numbers to their standard would 
be death to their cause; for although many might be impregnat- 
ed with the distinctive mania of the new sect, the great mass of 
adherents would be of a character too calm and sensible to sup- 
port the furious fight on which the leaders were bent. So it has 
turned out. A great many members of the Abolition Societies 
have turned conservatives, and are actually the most efficient op- 
ponents of the madness of their leaders. The community gene- 
rally, though greatly excited at first, have ceased to care much 
for the noise. Even the southern slaveholders, though driven by 
their resentment to many most foolish and wicked speeches and 



212 THE ABOLITIONISTS. 

deeds, have now become more cool and self-possessed. The zeal 
of the Abolitionists themselves has also cooled somewhat, if we 
may judge from their diminishing efforts. They have tried to re- 
kindle the zeal of their party by the fires of Pennsylvania Hall, 
but we apprehend, with no great success. 

The catastrophe of the aftair seems now to have arrived. The 
leaders, in their efforts to turn the heads of the public, have pretty 
thoroughly addled their own. They have, as is the end of fana- 
tics commonly, espoused the most monstrous errors. Garrison 
denounces the Sabbuth, the clergy, all government, even that of 
the family, and teaches the little ones to disobey their parents, for 
this is right. In this he is joined by several others. Miss 
Grimke has, with some other women and men, turned off from 
declaiming against the oppression of the blacks, to denouncing the 
oppression of the women. Some of them have become perfec- 
tionists, and now count themselves too good to associate even 
■with white folks ; and Mr. Stewart, of Utica, has created a grand 
split by declaiming that the society was wrong in the declaration 
it had placed in its constitution, that with the States alone rests 
the power to legislate on the subject of slavery. Mr. Stewart 
was able to convince a majority of members at the last sitting, 
that in this fundamental avowal they were utterly wrong. He 
said such a doctrine was quite in the way of their success ; for 
when the people were urged to join the Abolitionists, a great 
many pointed to that clause in the Constitution, and very coldly 
said, if that be true, what's the use of anti-slavery societies in the 
free States ? This very sensible common sense logic was too 
much for Mr. Stewart, and so with a true Abolition heart, he is 
for putting all impediments out of the way. On the whole, these 
loving men and women, blacks and whites, abhorring all preju- 
dice about sex or color, have got their claws pretty well into each 
others' hair, and whatever may be left of the persons, there will 
be hardly a grease-spot, in three years, to mark where Abolition 
once sat. We said, whatever may be left of the persons. Here 
is to us a melancholy thought. Many of the leaders will be left 
intellectual wrecks, (we hope not moral wrecks,) to warn all who 
navigate the moral seas, to beware how they abandon the teach- 
ings and temper of the great Book of charts. 



CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES. 213 

ABOLITION IN THE <3HURCHES. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, February 2, 1839.] 

The Abolitionists are holding a great city convention here, 
about these days, and trying hard to blow up the expiring embers 
of agitation. One of the measures resolved upon, is, Ave under- 
stand, to form an Anti- Slavery Society in every church in the city, 
and very likely in the country too. They would perhaps like to 
form an Abolition Society in every quiet and happy family if they 
could. As to the Church Anti-Slavery Societies, they are in vio- 
lation of the plainest principles of fairness, though in accordance 
■with the policy which has been adopted too much, in connection 
with other efforts at reform, and sanctioned by much high autho- 
rity, 'besides that of Abolitionists. The churches are well formed 
associations, and if their united action can be turned to any one 
point, the results are likely to be important. So they have been 
made the cauldrons to boil all soups in. But it ought to be re- 
membered that churches are associations for one purpose, and the 
members being agreed on this one 2}oint, live together very affec- 
tionately, though on other matters they may hold very diverse 
opinions. It is easy to see, that if one party undertake to pervert 
the association and make it into a temperance society ; another 
party to make it into an anti-slavery society ; another, a moral re- 
form society ; another, an anti-masonic society ; and all the rest, 
something else, that the original design of the institution is over- 
thrown, and a peaceful association turned into a bedlam. The 
same reasoning would apply to any other association. It is often 
the case that associations formed for other purposes, are attempt- 
ed to be made into political engines. This is always complained 
of, and justly ; for it is unfair, and a violation of the pledge given 
on entering the association. We do not expect to convince Abo- 
litionists with this reasoning, obviously just as it is ; but we hope 
to convince other men, and induce them to let the churches at- 
tend to their own proper business ; viz., the promulgation of the 
Gospel simply, and an attendance upon its ordinances. As to 
the new spasm of Anti-Slavery, we hope the churches will " take 
it coolly." They will not be hurt if they behav^e wisely. The effort 
will prove itself feeble for mischief, if so designed. Abolition 
has had its day ; its character is well understood ; its adherents 
are falling off sick ; and in all respects it has ceased to be an 
alarming apparition. 



214 DIVISION AMONG ABOLITIONISTS. 

ABOLITION. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, May 12, 1840.] 

Our good friends the Abolitionists are gettmg into a pretty 
considerable snarl, from which we wish them a safe deliverance. 
As they have had but little fighting to do with the public of late, 
they have gone at it, hammer and tongs, among themselves. We 
expect they will end where the Kilkenny cats did. 

Be it known, then, to all horned cattle, that the Executive 
Committ(;e of the American Anti-Slavery Society, including its 
worthy President Arthur Tappan, Esq., are regarded by the Gar- 
rison faction as far, — very far behind the age. They are not up 
to the latest humbugs by a long way. They do not hold to the 
non-resistance, no-human-govcrnment theories ; they do not de- 
nounce the clergy ; they are not in favor of dressing out Avomen 
with boots and spurs ; they can't go perfectionism ; they regard 
the Sabbath as a divine institution ; and in various other respects 
they are guilty of the most alarming heresies. Therefore they must 
be ousted from their places ; and to this end Garrison and his 
party are coming on, or ha\e come on, with all the strength they 
could muster, — male and female, black and white, — to vote these 
gentlemen out of office. And they will succeed ; we have no 
doubt of it. One feature of the Abolition Society is, that eveiy 
member, male and female, has a right to vote in its meetings ; 
and as the admission fee is a mere song, it is the easiest thing 
in the world for any restless individual who is mean enough, and 
willing to take the trouble, to turn the administration of the 
society up side down. So here she goes. To-morrow is the day 
for the tragedy to be enacted. In the mean time we copy from 
the last Lie-berater, the rallying-cry of the revolutionary party : 
" The New York Anniversary. — If after all the facts that have 
been laid before the Abolitionists of the country, respecting the 
plan to abolish the National Society, and to put the management 
of our cause into the hands of a select body of men, &c., Ac, — 
and after all the warnings and appeals that have been made to 
them, to rally together at New York, next week, in order to keep 
our common platform from being broken down by the hoof of 
sectarianism — they shall neglect to give an overwhelming attend- 
ance, it will prove conclusively, that Abolitionism is indeed 'going 
down.' In order to enable such of the friends of the ' Old Or- 
ganization' in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode 
Island, as wish to be present at the meeting, without incurring 
much expense, we are requested to state that arrangements have 
been made with the railroad and steamboat companies, by which 
it is expected that delegates may go from this city to New York, 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 215 

and hack again, for a sum not exceeding five dollars ! They can 
also be accommodated with food and lodc^ing in New York, for 
50 cents a da3^ An extia train of cars will leave Boston for Pro- 
vidence on Monday next, May 11, at half-past 12 o'clock, stop- 
ping at the intermediate places, on the arrival of which at Provi- 
dence, the company will embark for New York, in the spacious 
steamboat Rhode Island, (one of the safest and best boats in the 
country,) touching at Newport for the accommodation of the 
friends in New Bedford, Nantucket, Ac, &c. A grand anti-sla- 
very meeting will be held on board the boat during the passage. 
Under these circumstances, it is hoped and believed that our 
friends will muster strong. A special invitation is given to our 
colored friends to be fully represented on the occasion, as they 
will be admitted to equal privileges with others, both in the cars 
and on board the boat." 



SLAVERY— SEPARATION OF CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS INTO 
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, May 28, 1845.] 

The question of slavery was above all others the most difficult 
to be adjusted and settled, at the time of the formation of tiie Fe- 
deral Government ; and though, in the spirit of compromise, the 
institution was recognized in the Constitution, and left, as to its 
continuance or abolition, where it was found, exclusively under 
the control of the State sovereignties sanctioning its existence, it 
was then, in its moral relations, and has been ever since, a subject 
of discussion and agitation. Some have thought, (and Granville 
Sharp in a letter to Dr. Franklin, dated 1788, expressed this opi- 
nion,) that the clause in the Constitution permitting tlie longer 
continuance of the American slave trade, and that of the second 
section of the third article, requiring the surrender of fugitive 
slaves, were " so clearly null and void by their iniquity, that it 
would be even a crime to regard them as law." Others, at the 
origin of the Constitution, maintained, and many now maintain, 
that in forming a union of sovereign States, the toleration of evils 
preexisting in some of those States, and under tlieir exclusive 
control, if the consequence be clearly conducive to the ameliora- 
tion and ultimate extinction of such evils, is a dictate of sound 
morality ; and that the ancient Jewish law touching slaves that 
might escape from their masters, was a part of the civil code 
of Judaism only, and not of the moral code of immutable and 
universal obligation. The whole subject of slavery in these 



216 CHRISTIAN DUTY TO THE SLAVES. 

United States is so complicated in its relations, involving so 
many rights and duties of individuals, of States, of the general 
government, of respect to the mutual interests of two distinct 
races of men, as to involve the deepest questions in morals, poli- 
tics and religion. Hence, for the last ten years, probably no one 
subject has more occupied the public mind, been more thorough- 
ly investigated, or earnestly discussed, by the press, by voluntary 
associations, by ecclesiastical bodies, and by the representatives 
of the people in the Stale and national councils. The agitation 
has finally severed the ties of Christian union between the north- 
ern and southei'n members of two of the largest ecclesiastical 
communions, and is perhaps threatening others. No such divi- 
.sions can aft'ect the question of duty in regard to our slave popu- 
lation, and how far they will contribute to advance or retard its 
performance, is yet to be seen. We confess our apprehensions, 
that as in cases of divorce between those most closely allied in 
domestic relations, the alienation of feeling will increase, and error 
on both sides become more inveterate. Let us, hoAvever, hope 
for the best. Rash and reckless as has been the course of north- 
ern Abolitionists, the moral sense and sentiment of all Christifins 
whose interests are not identified with slavery, demand of the 
people of the Southern States, — not on the ground of law or 
constitution, but of right reason (the foundation of both) and of 
liumanity and Christian duty, — a system of voluntary, cautious, 
but determined action for the improvement of the condition and 
elevation of tlic character of the slaves, — that such ancient laws 
should be revised as are contrary to justice and benevolence, — 
that these people who cultivate the fields, and by their labor en- 
rich the South, should be permitted to possess, read, and search 
the sacred Scriptures, — should enjoj', like others, the benefits of 
ample religious instruction, — and that their families should be 
protected by law against wanton insults, and tlie needless and 
cruel rupture and destruction of their domestic relations. The mis- 
representations and fierce denunciations of the Abolitionists have 
been pleaded by southern Christians as an excuse for their inac- - 
tion ; but now, having assumed a separate and independent posi- 
tion, they should give activity and effect to those just and humane 
sentiments upon which, on account of the unreasonable and im- 
prudent interference of others, they have felt compelled to impose 
restraint. We have never doubted the general humanity of Chris- 
tians at the South ; but so imperfect, even in good men, is our na- 
ture, — so affected by early habits, associations and circumstances, 
— so disposed to voluntary ignorance, where knowledge would 
give pain — to apologize for indolence where efforts must be ar- 
duous to be successful, — so inclined to think and say it is enough 



GOVERNOR HAMMOND ON SLAVERY. 217 

for US to rest satisfied with the customs, laws and institutions of 
our fathers, — that mighty influences, the clear shining of gie.ii 
truths, or some Luther's thimdering voice, can alone arouse them 
to the energy and self-denial of thorough and extended reform. 



GOVERNOR HAMMOND'S LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

IFram the Jovrnal of Commerce, July 3, 1846.] 

The groat body of Southern people will be found hereafter sus- 
taining the positions taken by Governor Hammond, and it is well thnf 
our Northern friends should be duly informed thereof; and his wliolo 
discussion is so manly, plain, and good tempered, that his own wOru- 
are the best medium in which his reasonings can be conveyed. — Charles- 
ton Paper. 

This sentence is selected from an article announcing the i c 
publication of Governor Hammond's Letters in pamphlet form A) 
general circulation at the South, and the writer urges their 
republication by Northern editoi's as a conclusive vindicatifni, 
from the South, of perpetual slavery. We have already briell 
reviewed the first letter of this gentleman, and demonstrated, we 
trust, that his main argument, derived from patriarchal and 
Jewish example, has no validity. His second letter is now 
before us. To the argument deduced from tlie practice of patri 
archs and the civil code of the Jews he recurs, as if sensible that 
on no other ground can his doctrine of the right of perpetual 
slavery be sustained. 

Before we proceed to reexamine this argument, we must bt 
permitted to notice one of the many fallacies of the author, in 
regard to our knowledge of the existing slavery at the So i'' 
IIc thus addresses Mr. Clarkson, of England : — 

" I have not the least doubt that you think yourself the very he:; 
informed man alive on tliis subject, and that many think likewise 
far as facts go, even after deducting from your list a great deal that i- 
not fact, I will not deny that iiroljahly your collection is tlie most ey 
tensive in existence. But as to the trutli in regard to slavery, thcru ;. 
not an adult in this region but knows more of it than you do. TV?-''- 
ximX/dct are, you are aware, by no means synonymous terms. Nin-M 
ni IK! facts may constitute a falsehood ; the hundreltli, ailded or r.!.-;i' 
gives the truth. With all j'nur knowledge of facts, 1 undertak? '• . 
that you are entirely and grossly ignorant of the essential priiir ■ 
humiin association revealed in history, both sacred and p)-'ji.. 
Avliich slavery rests, and wliich will perpetuate it forever in ^J ,i 
or other. However you may declaim against it; however poweri.... 
you may array atrocious iiuiidcnts ; whatever appeals you may ni^k 
the heated imaginations and tender sensibilities of mankind, believe •■ . 
your total blindness to the whole truth, which alone constitutes iii» 
10 



218 GOVERNOK HAMMOND ON SLAVERY. 

truth, incapacitates you from ever making an impression on the sober 
reason and sound common sense of the world." 

Again : " Other Ueforniers, animated by the same spirit as the Aboli- 
tionists, attack the institution of marriage, and even the established 
relations of parent and child. And they collect instances of barbarous 
cruelty and shocking degradation which rival, if they do not throw into 
the shade, your slavery statistics. But the rights of marriage and pa- 
rental authority rest upon truths as obvious as they are unchangeable, 
— coming home to evci'y human being, self-impressed forever on the 
individual mind, and cannot be shaken until the whole man is cor- 
rupted, nor subverted until society itself becomes a putrid mass." 

Whether there be any ground for the distinction suggested by 
Governor Hammond between truth and fact (and it is at least 
shadowy) or not, every fact is undoubtedly a truth, and it is 
obvious, that if " ninety-nine facts may constitute a falsehood, 
and one added, or alone, give the truth," — if the " iohole truth 
alone constitute the truth," — Governor Hammond, not less than 
Mr. Clarkson, is incapacitated to judge on the subject of slaverj^, 
or to make an impression on the sober reason and sound common 
sense of the world. We are aware of the injustice and unfair- 
ness of those, who would string together rare and atrocious 
instances of cruelty or crime, to be found in any society, and 
present them as evidence of the general character of such 
society. But such collections of facts, under one system, with 
collections fairly made under other and different systems of 
society, are not useless in determining the relative merits of the 
two. And if it be evident, as we hope to show, that neither 
Patriarchal example nor Jewish law is of validity to sustain the 
doctrine of perpetual slavery, certainly as it now exists, and that 
while Christianity tolerates, its prevcxlent spirit must inevitably 
in due time, and by proper means, subvert the system, we must 
conclude that abuses under relations divinely sanctioned as per- 
manent, are not to be alleged as arguments for the perpetuity of 
slavery, and we might conclude as probable, what we believe to ' 
be true in fact, that the abuses under the system, destined to 
perish, are' greater in nunibei- and extent than those incident to 
natural relations immutably e!^tablislK!d by the moral law. 

What does or can any one man, or any twenty men living, 
know of all the facts embodied in the operations of the system 
of slavery, during a single day ? On a subject so extended, so 
complex, so varying, the knowledge of the wisest, the most 
cxpei'ienced, the most observing and sagacious, must be very 
defective, and altogcither general. To the formation of correct 
opinions concerning it, Mr. Clarkson's position is in some re- 
spects imfavorable ; Governor Hammond's is so in others. The 
former is peculiarly liable to prejudice, exposed to exaggerated 



GOVERNOR HAMMOND ON SLAVERY. 219 

statements, left to form his judgment from testimony, from the 
hiws, and the published acts of cruelty and oppression in the 
South, witliout observation, or just representations of many com- 
pensating circumstances and deeds of humanity. The latter, 
founding his whole tlieory on imagined Divine right, defends this 
fiction as conscientiously as though it were fact, looks round him 
for green spots and fountains in the desert, and neither witnesses 
nor perhaps desires to know, tlie sufferings and the crimes in his 
immediate vicinity. Ninety-nine facts of cruelty and oppression 
constitute to him a falsehood ; but the hundredth fact of kind- 
ness or compassion gives the truth ; or vice versa, if you please. 
Could Governor Hammond mean this ? and if not, what does he 
mean ? 

And why should not Mr. Clarkson retort, and with reason ask 
what Governor Hammond can know of tlie condition of the 
laboring classes in Great Britain, of the state of things in the 
West Indies, or in tlie British possessions in the East ? "I am 
not aware," says Governor Hammond, " that you have ever 
visited this country or the West Indies." — " I am not aware," 
says Mr. Clarkson in reply, " that you have ever visited this 
country or our West or East Indies. There is not an adult in 
Birmingham, in Jamaica, or in Calcutta, but knows more of the 
effect of our government in these places than you do. You may 
have ninety-nine facts, but recollect, sir, without the hundredth, 
they constitute a falsehood ; that it is the whole truth which 
alone constitutes the truth, without which you are incapacitated 
forever from making an impression on the sober reason and com- 
mon sense of the world." 

Men of sober reason and common sense will judge of slavery 
as they judge of other states and conditions of human society, 
by the best lights they possess, or can obtain, of reason, testi- 
mony, observation, experience. If perfect knowledge of the 
whole truth is necessary to enable us to form opinions, in regard 
to these states and conditions, we must despair utterly of the 
achievement. Yet most men deem themselves competent to 
discuss the respective merits of different forms of government, 
and the relative value of different pohtical and social institutions 
of which they have but read in history or heard from the oral or 
recorded testimony of those who have felt their influence or ob- 
served their operations. The general piinciples of such govern- 
ments and institutions, general and particular facts connected 
therewith, their nature and causes, aflbrd grounds for comparison 
and reasons for just general conclusions. And of this kind of rea- 
soning Governor Hammond supplies numerous illustrations, not 
contending more earnestly for his theory, than immediately and 



220 G O V i: U N U 11 HAMMOND ON SLAVERY. 

comploU'ly confuting it. lie finds it most convenient to shelter 
himself uiulor the authority of Scripture, since l)efore such au- 
thority, if it exist, ojiposing argument is profane, and reason 
bows in silence. What are ninetj'-nine arouments against per- 
petual slavery and but one for it, if the infallible and mighty 
Word bids contradiction and argument alike cease ? 

" Innumerable instances (says Governor Hammond) nup;lit bo (juoteil 
where Cod has }!;iven and oonimandod men to assunio tloniinion over 
their I'oUow-uien. But one wiU sulhoo. In tlie twonty-ti'tli chapter of 
Leviticus you will liud douu'stic slavery — precisely such as is maintained 
at this day, in these States — ordained and established by Uod, in lan- 
gunjje -which 1 defy you to pervert, so as to leave a doubt on any lionest 
mind that the institution was founded by llira and decreed to be per- 
petual. I quote the words : — 

'■ ' Leviticus 25 ch. 44 vs. — Botli thy bcnKhiien niut thy hoiiilmniils which tliou slialt 
liavt", shall bo of thu hiMlhfii [AlViciius] that aio round about you j of whom y c shall 
buy bondmoii and liomlimiiils. 

'•'45 Moreover of the children of the strnn-jers that do sojourn among you, of 
thoni shall yc buy. and of their families that are with you which they begat in your 
luiul [descendant's of Vfricans] and they sliall be your possession. 

•••4(> And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you to 
inherit them for a jiossession. Thev shall be vouk bondmf.n kokevkk.' 

" What human legislature could make a decree more full and explicit 
than this.' What court of law or chancery could defeat a title to a 
slave couched iu terms so clear ami complete as these .' And this is the 
law of God whom you pretend to worship, while you denounce and tra- 
duce us for respecting it." 

If this Jewish code be a law to us, it must certainly be 
received with its various restrictions ami limitations. It must be 
shown that \ve t)t'cu[)y among the nations, at least toward the 
heathen, the position of the Jews; and then not only the foreign 
slave trade becomes lawful, but our own citizens may be sold for 
a period of six years to one another in cases of po\erty or debt, 
while enslaved strangers and their descendants must, should 
they consent, be received by baptism (answering to circum- 
cision) into the church, and thus reduce the jieriod of their 
servitude and modify its character in accordance with that oi the 
Hebrews themsi'lves, while such as decline the rite, as well as all 
others, in case of escape, must in no instance be restored to their 
masters, but (according to most commtnitalors and the testiraoi;y 
of Josei)hus) share, at the close of fifty years, in the eman- 
cipation of the Jubilee. And since the Jewish Theocracy 
has expired, whence is derived our authority for adopting the 
laws of slavery which prevailed among the Jews, unless all other 
nations (certainly Christian nations) may adopt the same? And 
by Avhat right does Governor Hammond apply the Avords of the 
Jewish law to Africans and descendants of Africans, when the 



GOVERNOR HAMMOND ON SLAVKRY. 221 

slaves introduced among the Jews Avere a distinct people, the 
children of Canaan, upon whom alone was pronounced a curse, 
and from wlujm history shows that the Africans we enslave are 
not descended. While the argument from Jewish law would, if 
it had any force, be rather against than for a system of perpetual 
slavery such as exists in our country, we deem it of no validity ; 
since, as has been well remarked, " under the glorious dispensa- 
tion of the gospel, we are absolutely bound to consider ourselves 
as citizens of the world, and every man whatever, without any 
partial distinction of nation, distance, or complexion, must neces- 
sarily be esteemed our neighbor and our brother," and since the 
laws of Christian benevolence must tend to improve the con- 
dition, exalt the character, and conduce to the civilization, know- 
ledge, liberty and happiness of the whole human race. 

True, slavery, like political despotism, was tolerated by Christ 
and his apostles ; they justify as permanent neither the one nor 
the other ; and while abstaining from positive and indiscrimi- 
nate denunciations of either, enjoin duties upon individual men, 
and proclaim principles of universal application to human so- 
ciety, which must of necessity finally subvert both. Their power 
was shown in the destruction of slavery, to a great extent, in the 
early ages of the church ; the feudal systems of Europe wasted 
away before them ; they planted civil and religious freedom on 
this continent ; they have during the last fifty years pervaded a 
great portion of Christendom ; and the flame of zeal and philan- 
thropy they are kindling in ten thousand hearts, is immortal, and 
will at no distant period shine out on the whole world like the 
sun in his strength. 

Heady as Governor Hammond is to adduce scriptural quota- 
tions in support of his theory, in one instance at least he exhil>its 
a remarkable misapprehension of the ordinaiy meaning of the 
sacred language. Because God by the pi'Ofihet Joel d('nr)nnces 
vengeance against the Tyrians and Zidonians who had sold the 
children of Judah and of Jerusalem unto the Grecians, in these 
words : — " And I will sell your sons and daughters into the 
hands of the children of Judah, and they shall s(;ll them to the 
Sabeans, to a people far off ; for the mouth of tlie Lord hath 
spoken it," — Governor Hammond asks, " Do you call this a con- 
demnation of slave-trading? The prophet makes God himself a 
])articipator in the crime, if it be one." Can it be necessary to 
remind Governor Hammond that the evil passions and the worst 
crimes of men are represented in Scripture as the instruments of 
Divine displeasure ; that the Assyrian king who is addressed by 
the Almighty as the rod of his anger and the staff of his indig- 
nation, who is to be sent against an h3pocritical nation, and 



222 GOVERNOR HAMMOND ON SLAVERY. 

charged " to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread 
them doAvn hke the mire of the streets," is himself an offense to his 
Maker, who declares, that when his whole work upon Mount 
Zion and on Jerusalem is performed, lie " will punish the fruit 
of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his 
high looks." Let Governor Hammond read the 3Gth verse of 
the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, or the 11th verse of the 12th 
chapter of the 1st hook of Samuel, and he will hesitate again to 
confound the acts of God's ]n-ovidential government in the control 
of moral evil, with the sanctions of his moral law. 

Alluding to dangers to the Union, Governor Hammond writes, 
" and come Avhat may, we are firmly resolved that our system 
OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY SHALL STAND." The Northern Abolition- 
ists are as much disposed to disunion for the overthrow, as Gov- 
ernor Hammond is for the preservation and perpetuation of sla- 
very. These are the extremes. The great body of the Amer- 
ican people will guard the Union, but they hope and expect, 
Avith the consent of the South, with due i-egard to the many 
great interests concerned, with a circumspect caution, and a pru- 
dent foresight as to the means, the tinal and entire abolition of 
slavery. This is a great moral end, to which the public mind is 
urged by causes and motives of irresistible force. 

" Come what may, we arc firmly resoh^ed that our system of 
DOMESTIC SLAVERY SHALL STAND ;" and who are " we ?" A few 
politicians, or the small comnumity of South Carolina, and here 
and there one in the other Slates of the South, educated in the 
same school. Can you erase from the New Testament, or the 
memory of man, those words of the Great Master of Christians, 
*' Whatsoever ye would that others shoidd do to you, do ye even 
so unto them," or make Christians believe it right to deny to 
three millions of slaves the privilege of reading them ? Can 
you silence the whisperings of your own consciences, when you 
worship at His altar who took upon him the form of a servant 
and died in agony for the whole brotherhood of our race, thus 
opening, in a sense too high for Avords to express, the doors of 
the prison-house, and setting the captive free ? Can you fortify 
yom* own purposes against tlie genial influences and all-subduing 
spirit of liberty, seen and felt in the breeze, the forest, the 
streams, the ocean, in all animated nature and all living forms, 
thundering from our mountains, breathing fragrance through our 
valleys, making even the songs of birds more sweet, illuminating 
the great charter of our Independence, and like a hidden but 
holy fire, vital in the whole frame of our National Constitution ? 
Can you maintain your gnnuul against the gcmius, the eloquence, 
the literature, the philanthropy of the age and the civilized 



GOVERNOR HAMMOND -ON SLAVERY. 223 

world ? Above uU, can you defend the mrong against the 
right ? No ! never ! This system of slavery has within itself 
the seeds of decay and dissolution. On those who deem Liberty 
no blessing to themselves, or who believe that the African race 
are, by nature, incapable of understanding or enjoying it, such 
reflections may make no impression ; but by those wlio admit the 
common origin, redemption, and desliny of the human race, they 
cannot be disregarded. If the tliought of perpetual bondage for 
ourselves be repugnant to all our sentiments, it must be a condi- 
tion to which we cannot benevolently wish to see others forever 
subjected. We are not to be understood as urging sudden 
emancipation, or as doubting the general humanity of the people 
of the South. We are for action on the part of the South, cau- 
tious, wise, prudent action, in preparation and for improvement. 
We wish all to believe that evils should be remedied, though it 
may require time to remedy them ; that slavery is to be abol- 
ished, though there may be several, perhaps many steps, before 
that point can be reached. And who can tell that lie who rules 
in human adairs, as upon the throne of Eternity, sees not in the 
distance the emancipated and instructed descendants of Africa 
hastening at the bidding and with the blessing and gifts of their 
masters, to repossess the land of their progenitors, to rebuild the 
desolate homes and repair the wastes of ages, to dispense the 
bread of life to the famishing, to wake new joy, to spread out 
new life and light and beauty, in that land of crime, slavery and 
despair ? 

Having said thus much in regard to what we deem erroneous 
in the views and arguments of (rovernor Hammond, w<! add 
that, like him, we marvel at the ignorance shown by Mr. Clark- 
son, in his recent address to the inhabitants of the United States, 
of oui- institutions, of events in our early and more recent history, 
of the sentiments of our citizens generally, and of the cliaracter 
and virtues of the people of our Southern States. He has de- 
rived his information, obviously, from no pure sources. It would 
be useless to attempt the correction of Mr. Clarkson's errors in 
this, or those not less numerous perhaps in his former address, 
or to rernark very parti(;ularly upon the tone of authority with 
which this aged veteran in the anti-slavery cause assumes to 
instruct our countrymen. He evidently knov/s not the well-nigh 
univeisal and ardent attachm.ent of our citizens to the Union, tlie 
respect and esteem cherished mutually by the citizens of the dif- 
ferent States toward each other, and has not the slightest con- 
ception of th(^ sympathy and humane concern felt by the people 
of the SouUi in the ])hysical comfort of the slave population, nor 
of the profound desire cherished by thousands who adorn all 



224 ABOLITION AND THE A. B. C. F. M. 

their social relations, to fulfill, towards this dependent class, as 
the way raay open before them, the highest requirements of 
Christi;m duty. 



THE ABOLITIONISTS AND THE AMERICAN BOARD OF 

MISSIONS. 

[Fro/n the Journal of Commerce, September, 1&15.] 

FiFTEEjr years ago the subject of slavery was discussed 
throughout the Union, under the banner of Colonization. Tliat 
enterprise embraced good men through the free and the slave 
States, and most freely was the condition of the colored race can- 
vassed. Altliough no philanthropist could say how the mighty 
curso was to be removed in all its broad dimensions, yet a plan 
was prosecuted by which it was removed at least from a few. A 
few colored tamilies were removed, at their own desire, back to 
the land of their fathers, to a land whose warm climate and lux- 
uriant productions fitted it for their residence. There they were, 
far from any organized society of white men to crowd upon them 
and domineer o\er them. Black was the only color there, and 
therefore no mark of degradation. In Liberia a negro was every 
inch a man. He was a freeman, a part of the nation, and of the 
government, and eligible to an}^ post of honor or profit. His 
children were to grow up there, without ever having felt the 
crushing consciousness of inferiority, and the race, redeemed and 
disenthralled, were to take their stand as etpials among the na- 
tions. In this state of things tlie abolition of slavery in the Fe- 
deral District was earnestly discussed and pressed upon Congress, 
and some of the northern slave States were seriously consider- 
ing whether they ought not to take measures for the extinction of 
slavery. The most eloquent and populai- statesmen of Virginia 
and other States poured out their souls in burning eloquence in 
favor of the slave and the master, and against the intolerable 
burden of the relation which subsisted between them. The 
work went bravely on, and the seed so freely sown, and cherish- 
ed by so many hands, seemed fast ripening to a plentiful harvest. 

But there arose another set of philantliropists, more zealous, 
whose zeal amounted well nigli to fury. They could not wait for 
the slow process of the seasons, but would have the fields reap- 
ed now, and slavery abolished immediatelj^ Many of them had 
been the earnest friends of Colonization, but the cnmii of so slow 
a process disgusted them, and they seized the sickle and reaped. 
One earnest friend of Colonization had been to Europe, and ad- 



ABOLITION AND THE A. B. C. F. M. 225 

vooated Colonization most cloquenLly, but when he came back, 
learning tliat he had put forth some doctrines not recognized by 
the society, lie changed sides and fought against the plan with 
the same zeal with which he had contended for it. Another 
gentleman, who Avas a leading Colonizationist, learned to his 
great surprise that some spirituous liquors had been imported 
into Liberia, and he changed sides instantly, and became an ear- 
nest opponent of the cause which he had before promoted. What 
precise motives changed others, we cannot say ; but it is evident 
that gentlemen who wheeled round on such pivots could not 
have had any clear comprehension of what they had been advo- 
cating, either before or after the revolution in their minds. 

Well, what did these extra zealous men do for the immediate 
abolition of slavery? 

First, As we have intimated, they denounced Colonization in 
the most vehement terms. That was a scheme, they said, " en- 
gendered in hell ;" and as they had been the fathers of it, or at 
least its early nurses, th(^y ought to know. 

Secondly, They organized Anti-Slavery Societies throughout 
the free States. 

Thirdly, They procured Abolition lecturers to go through the 
free States, and established Abolition presses, and so taught the 
people in all possible ways what they knew before, and convin- 
ced them of what they had never doubted. 

Fourlldy, They set up young women in rows, first a black one, 
and then a white one ; they invited colored people to their tables 
at social parties, and to their pews in the churches, and so estab- 
lished the equality of the colors. 

Fifthly, They carried the war into the churches of the various 
denominations, insisting that Christian slaveholders should not 
come to commmiion, nor preaching slaveholders into the pulpits ; 
making the slavery question to supersede all other questions, and 
so " raised Ned and turned up Jack" in these previously more 
peaceful communities. By this they succeeded in abolishing the 
ties which existed between a considerable number of pastors and 
their people. 

Sixthly, They had a negro boy, whom they did something 
with, — educated, if we remember right. We recollect distinctly 
that there was one such boy, whom we all confessed they had 
set free. 

Seventhly, They fulminated all sorts of maledictions against the 
slaveholders of the South ; classed them with pirates, robbers, mur- 
derers, and whatever else was most to be abhorred, and cursed 
them from the crowns of their heads to the soles of their feet, in 
their fingers and their toes, their knees and their elbows, and in 
10* 



226 ABOLITION AND THE A. B. C. F. M. 

every other part to which the holy Pope of Rome extends his holy 
curses. 

Eiglitlihj, They gave aid and comfort to all fugitive slaves, and 
got out habeas corpus writs, and seized all such as happened to bo 
found peaceably traveling with tlieir masters within their pre- 
cincts, and compelled them to be free. More recently they have 
constructed an " under-ground railroad," which, going down on 
the south side of Mason and Dixon's line, comes up on the north 
side of the line which separates the United States from Canada, 
and so have established a colony of freemen under the reign of 
Queen Victoria. 

Ninthly, Not finding elements for sufficient war, out of them- 
selves, they split asunder, and commenced fighting each other ; 
going forth in guerilla parties, firing at anything whicli looked 
formidable, including tlie ministers, the churches, the Sabbath, 
the Bible, and above all the Constitution and the Union of these 
United States ; setting up a Liberty party, and pulling down a 
Liberty party ; getting some Liberty men into office, or at least 
keeping other men out, and so bothering the electors. Li fact, 
the labor has so increased upon their hands, as to make it quite 
plain to them, that evcrythinc) is to be abolished. If all things 
were back in chaos, then would Abolition be finished, and Garri- 
son and Leavitt, rising above their fellows, proclaim, " the eve- 
ning and the morning were tlie eighth day, and all's very good." 

Among the objects of most furious attack in this war of Abo- 
htion, is tlie American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions. The Board was formed for the specific purpose of send- 
ing the gospel to the heathen. Its labors of benevolence are all 
foreign, out of our own nation, except (if it be in any sense an 
exception) that it sends missionaries to the Indians. Whether 
this is more or less important than domestic missions, the Board 
does not say, but takes this department as one suitable for labor. 
It has followed up its design Avith great acceptance to the public 
generally, except the Abolitionists ; who laj^ sundry charges upon 
the Board, viz., that the Board has not denounced slaver}-, but 
takes money of slaveholders to support missions, and even sends 
agents among them to ask tlieni for it, and when they get it, mix 
up the black and the Avhite money together, without distinction 
of color, just as the black and while girls were mixed up at the 
Chatham Chapel. They insist that the treasurer of the Board 
must interrogate every dollar as to its history, thus. "Hast 
thou in thy journeyings, dollar, ever visited that land of abo- 
minable sin and darkness Avhich lies south of Mason and Dixon's 
line ? Ilast thou ever been paid as the price of immortiil hu- 
manity, sold to sweat and groan in slavery? Hast thou ever 



Alio LIT ION AND THE A. G. C. F. M. 227 

dwelt in I.Ik! pocket of one of those monsters in liuman form who 
holds his fellow-raen in bondat^e ? If thou hast, thou art a pol- 
hitod dollar, unfit to serve God or good men : thou canst not be 
admitted into the society of our honest money." If the dollar 
were to confess that it had been South to be sure, but had come 
back to a New York Abolitionist in payment for goods sold to 
slaveholders, it might be some mitigation. But whetlier the dol- 
lar might pass or not, the privilege of giving to so good a pur- 
pose as sending the knowledge of Jesun Christ to heathen nations 
is not to be allowed to slaveholders. They are so bad, that they 
are to be allowed to do no good thing. They may not contribute 
to any good object, nor labor in any good cause. Cut olF and 
excommunicated, they are to be given over to the commission of 
sin, and only sin, and that continually. All they are allowed to 
do, is to repent and mind the Abolitionists. Wo do not think we 
have caricatured the position which has been assumed, nor do we 
think it susceptible of being caricatured. Nothing in all the 
range of imagination could be more absurd in our judgment, than 
the one really taken. First, that the Board, and in fact eveiy 
society, and every church, shall be an Anti-Slavery Society. 
Ladies cannot meet to make clothes for poor children, but they 
must begin by passing some declaration about slavery ; and the 
Board of Commissioners must stop its mighty work of civihzation 
and Christianization, to have, first of all, an Anti-Slavery battle. 
The division of labor which so facilitates all other operations is 
not to be allowed in morals and religion, but everything must be 
one thing. The position really seems to be taken for -no other 
purpose than because, on account of its exceeding absurdity, it is 
out of all possible reach of compromise, and so will serve for 
endless war. The Board, desirous of peace on all sides, and in- 
fluenced by the fact that some of the heads which in the long 
war of Anti-Slavery have become so wretchedly twisted, Avere 
once good heads, and may possibly be so again, have listened to 
this folly, appointed committees on it, and more than once settled 
it by resolving the only thing which it was possible to resolve, 
viz. : that the subject of slavery did not come within the proper 
cognizance of the Board, their only business being the promulga- 
tion of gospel truth,, which was also the readiest way to the cor- 
rection of all moral wrong. Another great assault has been made 
upon the Board recently ; and in all sorts of professions of kind- 
ness it is demanded that the subject shall once more be most lov- 
ingly settled. If anything can be settled with such men, so that 
it will stay settled, it is more than our experience would lead us 
to expect. 

Now from this eminence, if it may be called so, this post of ob- 



228 ABOLITION AND THE A. B. C. F. M. 

servation any how, we ask our readers to turn back and look at 
this war and its results. There have been mobs here, and in va- 
rious other places. The lawful peace of Abolitionists has been 
violently interrupted, and their right of speech invaded ; and on 
the other hand the Constitutional guarantees of the States to- 
ward the owners of slaves have been resisted, and in a great mea- 
sure practically abolished. Feelings of the most acrimonious 
kind have been engendered through the country for years, though 
happily a better state of feeling seems now to be gaining ground. 
What has it all accomplished ? One of the chief arguments 
against Colonization in Africa was that the colored people were 
compelled to go. They did not act freely, and only chose that 
as an alternative. Has their Colonization in Canada been any 
less objectionable on the same score ? When a slave nms away 
by the luider-ground railroad, does he do it freely, or only as a 
choice of evils? Is he not in every sense compelled to run, and 
with a more absolute necessity than ever drove a man to Liberia ? 
Is the condition of the negroes any better in Canada, than it was 
before in slavery ? Tliey are still a wretched, degraded, and shut- 
out race, doomed inevitably to perish, without hope for themselves 
or their children of ever rising to an acknowledged equality with 
their fellow-subjects around them. The free negroes in the slave 
States are a much more miserable race than the slaves, and if the 
fact that they become extinct in the free States proves anything, 
it proves that even here they are worse otf tlian in slavery. We 
know that this is no reason for enslaving them, for every man, 
whatever be his color, is entitled to judge for himself in this re- 
spect. But it has sometliing to do witli the duty of philanthro- 
pists. To help a slave into a worse condition, however much he 
may desire it, is not so imperious a duty as to help him to re;d 
freedom. The system, at any rate, must have a deeper and 
broader remedy than colonization in Canada or anywhere among 
the whites, and we caimot help suspecting, perhaps illiberally, 
that the whole system of running oft' negroes is sustained quite 
as much for the sake of vexing the masters, as of benefiting the 
slaves. 

Within the fifteen years of this war, for war it has been to the 
knife, the Washingtonian movement has come up, and a glorious 
temperance reformation has been accomplished ; a most remark- 
able diange has taken place in favor of the observance of the 
Sabbath ; the whole world, except a part of the Roman Catholic 
and Greek Church States, has been opened to the free circulation 
of the Bible and its missionaries. Public opinion in our country 
has been completely revolutionized on the subject of the curren- 
cy ; and the true principles of political economy have otherwise 



THE SYRACUSE CONVENTION. 229 

been much advanced ; the change to clieap postage has been 
argued and carried ; Puseyism has risen and fallen ; the rights of 
men as individuals, to read, think, believe and speak, each one 
for himself, have been acknowledged as they never were before ; 
the Bible has been attacked, and has successfully resisted the at- 
tack, and now exerts a wider influence than ever ; in fact, in every- 
thing good, both in principle and practice, this fifteen years has 
been the most successful era in the progress of truth Avhich the 
world ever knew. And yet slavery is not abolished in one single 
State, nor has the subject of Abohtion, in our judgment, if it has 
advanced at all, kept any sort of pace with the other moral and 
political revolutions of the times. Now we propose, that after the 
measures for the abohtion of slavery which are proposed to the 
Board of Commissioners shall once more, at the meeting soon to 
assemble at Brooklyn, have received the same answer as before, 
the other side shall be allowed to take up the game, — and if by 
the year 18G0, we do not make a mighty inroad, and bring about 
a new era in slavery, we wU acknowledge that the Abolitionists 
are the wise men, and hand them back their balls. 



THE SYRACUSE CONVENTION. 
\_From the Journal of Commerce, March 23, 1846.] 

The Abolitionists are in very great trouble. They have estab- 
lished the negroes in the comfortable climate of Canada, and 
otherwise pretty much abolished the sin of slavery in these Unit- 
ed States ; yet there are so many other things out of order, that 
the good men can have no peace. Abolition is the remedy for 
all diseases. Whatsoever will not obey, let it be abolished. The 
A. B. C. F. M. is now the chief object of attack. Before the 
meeting of this body at Brookh^n last fall, every preparation Avas 
made to abolish it, by a thundeiing discussion. But it turned 
out that the Abolitionists were themselves abolished, so that Mr. 
Phelps, when asked point blank whether slavery was always a 
sin, neither said yes nor no. But a few choice spirits, the very 
purest of the whole, the very high wines of gall, carry on the 
war the more fiercely for defeat. They held a convention at Syra- 
cuse a while ago, from which they poured forth their vials. 
These were men who once stood well, and were happy and use- 
ful, cooperating with good men. But the infection of Abolition- 
ism appears to have perverted all their faculties. Among them 
were Gerrit Smith, Beriah Green, Alvan Stewart, and Dr. Lafon, 
formerly a missionary of the Board in the Sandwich Islands. The 



230 THE SYRACUSE CONVENTION. 

latter gentleman has been off service for six or eight years, and 
seems to be cliielly engaged in slandering his brethren who keep 
to the work, some of whom have carried their anti-slavery feel- 
ings quite far enough. This Dr. Lafon, as we jiulge from the 
newspapers, sets himself up to contradict not only the mission- 
aries, but scores of other men, who, as travelers, naval officers, 
and mariners generally, have given their testimony to tlie same 
facts. 

At the late convention at Syracuse, statements were jnit forth, 
probably coming from Dr. Lafon, which some people think are 
a real " bomb-shell" thrown into the American IJoard. A letter 
writer from Syracuse to the New England PuriUui says of the 
address of the convention — 

" If its ant'urd fitcfs are true it will unsettle the affections of tlio 
friends and supporters of the American Board in this ref:;ion, quite ex- 
tensively. My firm belief is, that its promises — the allepiations ajjainst 
the Board, that it allows in the churches of its missions the abominations 
of 'polygamy, caste, oppresfiion, slavery, idolatry, and all the various 
sins peculiar to their respective fields,' arc not true." 

It is wonderful how little sense there is among some sensible 
people. Who that has read the Acts of the Apostles and their 
h^.pistles to the churches formed of converts from idolatry, or (hat 
knows anything of human nature, can fail to understand these 
slanders ? Certainly they are " not true" in the manner in which 
tliey are put forth. The im})ression they are intended to make, 
tliat the American Board sanctions polygamy and idolatry by tlie 
practice of its missionaries, is utterly false. The habits which 
have been worked into a man's character by all the actions and 
conduct of his life are not instantly eradicated by the most tiio- 
rough faith in the Christian religion ; nor does the exercise of such 
a faith at once free a man from tlie social entanglements in which 
idolatry had conlined him. Wiien he iiears the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, and with his heart and what int(>iligence I\e jiossesses ac- 
cepts it, he has a new rule of duty and new objects of pursuit. 
Dut with regard to the tcMi thousand things whicli his old religiiMi 
taught him, he has to h'arn that they are wrong by compaiing 
them with his new rule, as by degi'ees he comes to understand 
it. How slow is the advance of society in truth, even where in- 
telligence is already extensive, where the people read and hear 
continually ! There are in this country now superstitions in current 
circulation and belief among intelligent Christians as prejiosterotw 
as anything which was ever taught by paganism. Who that hns 
labored to learn the truth with an ardent desire to adopt it on ail 
subjects, has not detected from year to year in his own behef, 



THE SYRACUSE CONVENTION. 231 

opinions which will not. boar invcsLisration for <a moment, and yot 
thoughtlessly he has been governed by tiicm all his life, until the 
moment of their detection, llovv long were wc and our fatlittrs 
in finding out that the slave trade was wrong for that to urge every 
friend to drink intoxicating li(iuors was wrong ! It is only now 
that the enlightenment of p]ngland has brought her people to 
know that the corn laws are ojjpressive and wicked. And liow 
slow are Americans to confciss that to our own protective tarilY 
belongs the same condemnation ! When an ignorant or a vicious 
man becomes a true Christian, he is not made a learned man, nor 
are his appetites, pampered by indulgence, at once made what 
they should be. lint if the heart is right, the head will grow in 
knowledge, and a struggle will be commenced with wicked desires 
which may prevent them from (nitbreaks, but which must be car- 
ried on long and with vigor, before the rebels will give up. When 
a Catholic becomes a Protestant, how long must he dwell upon the 
real character of the Virgin Mary before he will cease to feel for 
her a reverence which Protestants call idolatrous. 

No doubt there are in the churches formed by Christian mis- 
sionaries from the heathen, the same remains of old customs and 
opinions, which made the apostles so much trouble in the primi- 
tive churches. A Sandwich Island chief may give the best evi- 
dence of Christian affections, and yet he may not have learned to 
put on decent apparel, or formed any tolerable notion about the 
rights of property between him and his people. A heathen man 
becomes a Christian, but he has two or three or five or six wives, 
and three times as many slaves. His acceptance of Jesus Christ 
by faith will not necessarily mak(! him see that these relations 
are wrong, — and if he reads the Bible through, he will not only 
find neither of these relaticms specifically condemned, but both ap- 
parently sanctioned in the practice of the most api)lauded ancient 
saints. There is nowhere a word of disapprobation in the JJiblo 
of polygamy, unless the direction that bishops and deacions shall 
be each the husband of one wife, and that condemns bachelors as 
much as it does polygamists. 13ut what if such light should en- 
ter his mind as AVO\dd enable him to s(!e that one wife is all that 
sound morality allows ? The question is not whether he shall take 
more than one, but how shall he reduce the mmiber. Which 
wife with her children shall he cast away from his protection ? 
One would think that even the hard heart of an ultra- Abolitionist 
would allow him time to consider and provide for the condition 
which he desires, and not refuse him the benefit of Christian fel- 
lowship, merely because he is oppressed and distressed in s(!arch- 
ing for the path which will lead him out from his embarrass- 
ments. The condition of chiefs whose people are substantially 



232 THE SYRACUSE CONVENTION. 

related to him as slaves, may not be more easy of decision by a 
sincerely honest and Christian heart. 

No one whose last spark of common sense is not extinguished 
can doubt that slaveholders and polygamists, and dealers in alco- 
holic drinks besides, were admitted and recognized in the primi- 
tive churches without the thought that there was any " immora- 
lity" about them. Believers were ipso facto qualified members of 
the churches, and to associate with the Christians constituted 
church-membership in those days. Nor in the catalogue of cha- 
racters excluded from the kingdom of heaven, are slaveholders, 
polygamists, and rumsellers mentioned, but liars are mentioned, 
and repeatedly, as among the most hateful in that terrific 
category. 

The controversy of these Abolitionists, if such they are to be 
called after almost all Abolitionists have separated from them, 
reaches higher than the visible associations of professing Chris- 
tians. The great and original offender is Jesus Christ himself, 
who in his kindness invites all sinners to him, and if they accept 
his invitation, receives them, heavy laden though they be with 
ignorance, false opinions, and bad habits, not even asking any 
questions about these tests of the revilers. If He accepts them 
and they unite themselves with other Christians, they are in the 
church by His authority, and He is responsible for His own acts. 
Let the assailants attack the real object of their hate. 

In the ranks of the Syracuse convention there were men who 
hold political meetings on the Sabbath as a regular matter. 
Where do they belong in the list of offenders against religion and 
good morals ? To be sure, they sanctify their politics by calling 
over reho;ious words, but, after all, it is a mere matter of electina; 
themselves and those they like, to political office. An ordinary 
Tammany Hall meeting on the Sabbath would be no more a vio- 
lation of the day. To wliat depths of inconsistency and wicked- 
ness will not men sink, who forsaking the path of Christian kind- 
ness and duty, set themselves up to revile and calumniate their 
fellow-citizens and fellow -Christians ! What a warning are these 
men, once active in the labors of Christian benevolence, which 
they now oppose with such mad desperation ! Nothing is too 
useful to escape their slanders. Tlicy are not reformers, but abo- 
lishers. One would think that the American Board, the largest 
channel through which American Christians send out the Bible 
and missionaries, and useful instruction of every land to the de- 
graded nations of paganism, would fill even a fanatic, in his worst 
paroxysms, with a respect which would check his ravings. But 
the American Tract Society has been able to stand through a 
similar attack, and Ave have no doubt the American Board will 



SLAVERY AND THE CHURCHES. 233 

come off safe from this assault, furious as it is, and injurious as it 
may be, perliaps, in the beginning. 

We are aware that articles of this sort belong rather to the re- 
ligious papers. But there is not one of them upon which any- 
great institution for the promotion of the welfare of the world 
can rely. And such institutions as the American Tract Society, 
and the Board of Commissioners, in their very structure, are un- 
able to meet in a proper way such assailants as have made war 
upon them. It seems therefore to devolve of necessity, upon the 
secular newspapers to set these matters right, — while the reli- 
gious newspapers fiddle, each one upon the string of their own 
sect, though all the great institutions of the country were perish- 
ing in incendiary fires. 



SLAVERY AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, June 17, T84G.] 

FoK tlie last fifteen yeai-s we have had the most intolerable 
tempest that ever raged, about slavery metaphysics. The Baptist 
and Methodist national organizations have been broken in sunder, 
and the churches of all denominations which have been unwise 
enough to admit the debate, liave been kept in violent agitation. 
Recently both the Presbyteiian General Assemblies had the mat- 
ter up, and tlie New School Assembly spent a couple of weeks, 
more or less, in discussing it. D.D.'s have written pro and con, 
until the subject is not only threadbare, but worn to tatters. 
Well, what have we, as the end of all the tumult ? Why, a ge- 
neral agreement that slavery is a very bad system, under whicli 
enormous wrongs are done, and yet that there are some cases in 
which it is right for individuals to hold slaves, so that the holding 
of slaves is not in itself and of necessity in every single instance, 
wrong. This, we say, is the general and tolerably unanimous con- 
clusion ; that is to say, the opinion of the whole North, and a ma- 
jority of the South, is just exactly what it was twenty, forty, fifty, 
a liundred years ago. If anything, slavery is looked upon with 
rather less abhorrence than it was before this discussion com- 
menced ; for many extravagant opinions which persons were quite 
willing to adopt, have been corrected by better information. Jef- 
ferson said in reference to the great wrongs of slaverj', " I trem- 
ble for my country when I remember that God is just." No sen- 
timent stronger than this has been established since. In our 
judgment, this long-protracted, vindictive, wicked agitation only 
leaves public sentiment where it found it. Public sentiment was 



234 SLAVERY AND THE CHURCHES. 

rio;bt at the bcs^inninar, is riwht now, and ever will be. So now 
let those who think the subject worthy of their labors, write on, 
talk on, labor on. If they can change public opinion, or elicit one 
particle of light further, they will exceed our expectations. 

It is most wonderful that Christian churches at the North 
should ever have allowed the subject of southern slavery to dis- 
turb them. It is with them altogether a foreign and distant sub- 
ject, with which, as churches, they had nothing to do. It is as 
much out of order in a church-meeting, as the tariff or a national 
bank. Both these are moral, and if you please religious ques- 
tions, (for anything can be made so.) If men will consider the 
nature of Christian churches and the designs for which they are 
formed, they will see that those designs do not include such mat- 
ters. If it were not for the clerical bodies, who perhaps take up 
slavery for want of anything really useful on hand, we might 
now at once be rid of the Anti-Slavery disturbance. But if a 
bull comes roaring from Caledonia, and another from Canada, and 
the ecclesiastical judicatories here will give them stable-room, and 
all the great divines, talk about them, and write about them, why 
then the noise will go on. The New School General Assembly 
thought they had settled the question at the late meeting by 
adopting the resolutions of the Rev. Dr. Duffield, who has a very 
excellent faculty on such occasions of writing resolutions, which 
amount to nothing. So the dancing question was settled very 
amicably three years ago in the same body, by adopting the same 
gentleman's resolution that " j^romiscuous dancing" was unbecom- 
ing among Christians. This was considered as very distinctly con- 
demning checkcd-apron balls, and such othei** associations in con- 
nection with dancing as all respectable people take care to keep 
clear of. As to the slavery resolutions, we judge by the New 
York Observer, that it is very likely their meaning, if they have 
any, is so dubious that all parties, on second thought, will be hable 
to be dissatisfied. For ourselves, much as we have written dur- 
ing this furious war, we have never attempted to prove slavery 
to be either right or wrong ; for we knew it would be a waste 
of labor. And what Ave wish now particularly to impress on the 
gentlemen who are laboring so earnestly in this business, is the 
fact that they accomplish nothing. They do not change public 
opinion, and cannot. Why then keep up a useless agitation, even 
by writing well, when no possible good can come of it ? It would 
certainly be a great fixvor to the agitated churches to be left at 
rest. The moral and religious interests of the world demand 
something besides controversy, and especially that about foreign 
topics. 



USE OF ABOLITIONISM. 235 

USE OF ABOLITIONISM. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May 14, 1847.] 

Twenty years ago the cause of Colonization was unusually- 
popular. Real abolition was also gaining ground rapidly, so 
that but for the storm of fanaticism which arose in the East, sla- 
very would probably have been abolished before this, in Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. If it had been so, the 
colony of Liberia would have been overrun and utterly ruined in 
all probability, by hordes of emancipated negroes, in all the vice 
and feebleness of recently emancipated slaves. Barbarism would 
have amalgamated the colony with the neighboring tribes, and 
everything would have been lost. But Abolitionism came in to 
stay the ruinous prosperity. It has stayed emigration to Africa, 
until the colony and its principles have taken deep root. A 
government has been established, and is in the hands of colored 
men, who have managed their own affairs until they have sat- 
isfied themselves and the world of their ability for republican 
self-government. Schools and churches, and their necessary 
organizations, have been operating for years. Society in all its 
great departments is organized, opinions formed, and principles 
established. Society is fairly in motion upon its own axis, with 
its centrifugal and its centripetal forces accurately balanced. 
The civilized nations have looked on, and learned to respect the 
effort, and everything seems approaching the crisis when prac- 
tical Abolition and Colonization may act together as they once 
did, and upon a vastly enlarged scale. The chief thing to be re- 
gretted among the effects of the Abolition fanaticism, is, that it 
has prevented so many intelligent and property-owning blacks 
from emigrating. Liberia wants them, and to supply their place 
by liberated slaves requires years of training. Still, the success 
lias been great. When the colony of New Amsterdam had been 
established as long as that of Liberia, it numbered only two hun- 
dred and fifty inhabitants, and they in a most miserable plight. 
The Dutch in all that time had established absolutely nothing 
but mismanagement and rum. But the colored emigrants have 
established everything, and are speedily to become an indepen- 
dent people, standing in high honor among the Christian nations 
of the earth. Already they mmiber several thousand inhabit- 
ants, and are rapidly increasing in wealth, intelligence, and 
sound morals. They will soon be able to endure a large emigra- 
tion. What if the emigration from the old nations had poured 
into this country two hundred years ago, as it does now, or has 
done at any time for twenty ycais past ? The Yankee character 
would have been buried beneath an avalanche of Irishmen and 



23G THE OLD THREADBARE COAT. 

Germans. The hopes of the world were not thus to be blasted. 
The days of high prosperity were postponed until the new prin- 
ciples of our fathers had been put into successful operation, and 
luid worked so long that the nation had come to trust in and 
praise them. The Bible men have also had time to organize all 
their institutions, and to spread themselves over a vast surface, 
taking the lead, and shaping all the affairs of society. Now wo 
are ready for the miserablcs of all nations. They now come full 
of admiration of our institutions, and determined to support 
them, though they often make clumsy work of it. 



THE OLD THREADBARE COAT. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, December 6, 1847.] 

The Boston Recorder has " the pleasure to announce, that 
Rev. Dr. Watcrbury, of that city, will, in their next paper, com- 
mence a scries of articles on the subject of slavery." We con- 
fess our wonder that so many ministers should think it their 
dutjs in these days, to write a " series of articles" upon a subject 
which has been discussed and hammered and mobbed, until 
everything which could be said has been said a thousand times, 
— a subject too, which must continue to be discussed, in its 
events and management, until it ceases to exist. Slavery was 
abolished as a curse, an abomination, throughout New England 
long years ago. What else is thought of it now ? What new 
opinion has been formed about it ? In oixr judgment the public 
sentiment has not been advanced one inch by all that has been 
done. The odium of color, the real decfradation of the neo-ro 
race, has not been abolished in a single free State. There is not 
one of them in which the public sentiment is not more unkind 
toAvard the negro, than it is in any slaveholding State. Where 
are negroes recognized as men equal to the whites ? Where do 
they vote upon the great rule of individual human right ? A 
grudging pittance of justice, dealt out from domineering and 
arrogant hands, is all they can obtain. There is not a spot 
in all the free States, in which a respcctabh; white girl could 
marry the most respectable man with one drop of negro blood in 
liis veins, without being turned out of white society, for her 
rebellion against public sentiment. When such a state of things 
exists towards free blacks after such protracted discussion, we are 
in a poor position to discuss slavery ; certainly with the violent 
imputations of wrong towards slaveholders, which have so gener- 
ally characterized Northern discussion. We all agree to any 
verdict against slavery, which any one of its enemies will bring 



THE OLD THREADBARE COAT. 237 

in. " So say you, Mr. Forem.an ; so say you all, gentlemen," 
sliall have our unanimous and instantaneous assent. Wo will 
hang- it, drown it, or burn it, anything you ask, we will decree. 
'J'iien, what more do the wise men contemplate ? The best men 
of the slaveholding States, the wise men, the pious men, the 
thorough Abolitionists, beg us at the North to cease the agita- 
tion of this subject. They assure us unanimously that our agita- 
tion creates a pr^ijudicc which paralyzes their eiforts. They say 
that Abolition violence has for tlie time tainted and poisoned 
Northern opinions, so that even in the bitter spirit which now 
prevails, nothing but a pro-slavery effect is produced by our 
anti-slavery discussions. We know that the anti-slavery bitter- 
ness has taken such deep root in many New England churches, 
that the pastors, (many of whom planted the root themselves,) 
are teased and scolded because they do not "come out" against 
the awful sin of slavery. How many of them Avrite for the 
papers, and so do mischief for the sake of pacifying domestic 
tempers, we cannot say. That may be a good reason in some 
cases, and if any minister or layman has anything to say which 
has not been said at least a thousand times, we will not object to 
his saying it until that number is made up. Nor do we intend 
to say that slavery is not a subject to be discussed. But we 
have a right to show to Northern men, that their discussions are 
mischievous, if we think them so. This is as much our right, as 
any part of the discussion is the right of any one. 

We said that the subject must continue to be discussed in any 
event. Tiie incidents wiiich occur in reference to it will not only 
keep up a discussion, but an agitation. In calm discussion we 
are heartily glad to see the good old days of Colonization coming 
up again, and taking a lead as it did years ago. The people of 
tlie South are carrying on a discussion among themselves, and 
trying to recover the position which they occupied twenty years 
;igo. Why not listen, as far as the abstract question is con- 
cerned at least, to tlie men there who arc striving to bring about 
some measure for the removal of the intolei-able burden trom 
them ? Of the sincere desire of Mr. Clay and his associates in 
Kentucky, for instance, to abolish slavery in that State, there can 
be no doubt. It seems to us, standing as they do, they have a 
jjght to claim that their advice should be heeded, and respect- 
fully weighed. The pliysical and moral progress of the world 
are pressing harder and harder upon slavery. This progress 
must and will be discussed in all its tendencies. There is 
enough to do, in connection with events, and in striving to guide 
them right. The anti-slavery agitation, conducted as it has 
been, has been the worst thing for the interests of religion at the 



238 CHURCH POLITICS. 

North, which those interests have endured for lialf a century. 
The great mass of Christitm people have become utterly sick of 
it. We wish the ministers were as sick as the people. Many of 
them are. 



CHURCH POLITY AND ECCLESIASTICAL 
QUESTIONS. 



For the last ten years of his life, Mr. Hale took a special interest 
in the discussion of questions relating to the nature and constitution 
of the Church, its officers, the rights, duties and privileges of its 
members, the terras of Christian communion, and the means of 
spreading the gospel among men. His articles on these subjects, 
though deficient in historical research and Biblical criticism, yet 
as an exposition and defense of great principles, are not surpassed 
perhaps by any writings in the language. As they were generally 
called forth by some passing incident, and have no immediate 
connection with each otiier, they are here arranged in the order 
of time. Several dissertations on these topics, never before pub- 
lished, Avhich were intended to form a new number of Mr. Hale's 
occasional sheet, called " Facts and Reasonings," are introduced 
in a body by themselves. 



CHURCH POLITICS. 
[Ftom the Journal of Commerce, Febniart/ 14, 1838.] 

A Convention of clergymen was recently held at Worcester, 
Mass., " for the purpose of expressing the scntimewtsof the clergy 
of the county, on the subject of American Slavery." About 
eighty reverend gentlemen, of various denominations, assembled, 
and after a good clerical squabble, they so far agreed as to be able 
to adjourn for six weeks. We are happy to say that about half 
the clergy of the county preferred to stay away. The great 



ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINATION. 239 

trouble with this clerico-political Convention was the want of lib- 
erty of speech ; and yet, judging from the reports, they appeared 
to exercise quite as much liberty as was for the credit of tlieir vo- 
cation, or the good nature of their own feelings. Mr. Trask said, 
" lie was in favor of a holy excitement. We can accomplish no- 
thing without it. It is said, likewise, that we shall involve the 
clergy in poUtics. He ever had been, and ever meant to be, a 
politician — a Christian politician." And the churches, we sup- 
pose, are to be primary political associations, boiling with anti-ma- 
sonry, or temperance, or abolition. Ladies shall send up their 
sweet names to soften the hard hearts of politicians at Washing- 
ton, and the clergy, with muskets, well charged, fight the battles 

of the race. One of them tried it, and found shooting a 

game that two could play at. We can tell the reverend clergy, 
that if proceedings like what have been witnessed among them 
for two or three years past are to be continued, their black coats 
are destined to be dreadfully rolled in the dirt. It is matter of 
deep regret that so many of the clergy of this county have turn- 
ed aside from the proper duties of their profession, and set them- 
selves to the cultivation of all sorts of contention. 

In their proper sphere, the clergy are the most useful of all men. 
But out of it, they always manage badly. They have been bad 
politicians the world over. While they labor within the ))roper 
province of their high and holy vocation, they ought to be ex- 
empt from newspaper assaults, and from harm, in any way, 
from the belligerent parties in the world's contests. But if they 
are so fond of fight as to take arms and enter the field, we care 
not how severe is the drubbing wliich they get. 

One thing seems to us certain. If things go on as they are 
now going, the religion of Jesus Christ will need to be established 
de novo, in our land. The great business of the present organ 
ization has, to a lamentable extent, become something very dif- 
ferent from the original design for which churches were consti- 
tuted and religious ordinances set up. 



ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINATION. 
\_FroTn the Journal of Commerce, Novem.her 22, 1838.] 

The world knows something of the doings in the General As 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia. We had 
supposed, and we believe it was generally supposed, that after 
the split which took place there, the various Presbyterian churches 
of the country would be permitted to arrange themselves as they 
might choose with one or the other General Assembly. But it 



240 ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINATION. 

seems a different course has been resolved upon, and that the OKI 
School men have dctermuied to pursue tlie game hito all its hid- 
ing-places, and never to rest until the split is run into the remo- 
test ramiiication of the church. In furtherance of this policy, the 
Presbytery of New York, as we learn on good authority, have 
taken it upon themselves to depose the Rev. Dr. Cox, of Brook- 
lyn, and declare his pulpit vacant ! The church and congrega- 
tion of which he is pastor, would have been entirely harmonious 
but for this quarrel among the clergy in what is called the " Su- 
preme Judicatory of the Church," and notwithstanding this quar- 
rel, only two of the session, which is composed of seven, and a 
small number of laymen, are disaffected. The great majority of 
the church and congregation, and their officers, are attached to 
their pastor, and not disposed, any more than their pastor, to en- 
ter into any controversy about Presbyterian paper. But the 
Presbytery demand that Dr. Cox should give in his adhesion to 
the Old School General Assembly as the only true and geiuiinc 
body, notwithstanding the amicable division of the Synod which 
took place recently at Newburgh, by which Dr. Cox and his 
chuich had ceasjed to belong to the body which now attempts to 
depose him. Dr. Cox could not of course recogni/e the supre- 
macy of the Old School General Assembly, and for this he was 
deposed, and the small minority of his session and people declar- 
ed to be the session and church. We understand a member of 
the Presbytery was designated to obtrude himself into the pulpit 
on Sunday next, and proclaim the doings of the ecclesiastical 
tribunal, and inform the people that they must elect another 
pastor. 

Ordinary theological discussions or church proceedings do not 
come within the proper scope of the business press. But we 
think such an allair as this is so much a question of general right 
and common libcrt)% that every press which stands as the guar- 
dian of popular rights at all, is at hberty and is bound to use 
whatever inlluence it has, by way of resistance. If we nuist sub- 
mit to ecclesiastical tyranny such as this, then we are for mo\ing 
West, to see if there may not be another Plymouth Kock soine- 
Avh(!re, upon which we may set our feet, with the hope of raising 
again the sj)irit of the pilgrims where it may be sustained with 
better hopes. But such things will not be submitted to ; and al- 
though we have now no adequate channels for discussing the sub- 
ject before tlio public, the necessity will provide them. To talk of 
civil and rdigioHS liberty luider such measures, if they could be 
enforced, avouUI be idle. But they cannot be enforced, thanks 
to the 2>olitical guarantees of the country. The courts will not 
permit rights to be thus trampled upon. If the Presbytery of 



Till-: U O N G n E G A T I O N A L I S T . 241 

N<nv York choose to declare a puli)it vacant in violation of the 
wishes of both the pastor and the peopk;, tiiey can do so. It is 
only showing what they would do if they could. But if any Rev. 
D.D. should dare to interfere witli tlie public worship of a reli- 
gious assembly and attemjjt to take possession of their pulpit for 
the purpose of announcin;^ any such ecclesiastical decree, it 
would be the duty of such a congregation to call in the nearest 
police oflicHT, if there were none present, to seize the oliender and 
take him olF to jail, where, with liberty to study the laws of the 
land, lie might become a good citizen. If all the laws of good • 
ness contained in the Bible fail to curb the bad passions of those 
wlio are the teachers of religion, then they must learn of another 
statute book. We hope there is a large; portion of the Presbyte- 
rian Church who have no notion of submitting to these monstrous 
wrongs of clergymen ambitious of universal dictation. It is hii>-h 
time that this determination were fully announced, and the clergy 
sent back to their proper business. There are no men more use- 
ful than they, while with meekness, and kindness, and wisdom, 
they feed the flocks over which they are placed ; but out of this 
their proper sphere, they have ever been the most dangerous 
class in society. W(! are for keeping them in their places and 
about their prouer calling. 



THE CONGREQATIONALIST. 
lFn»n the Journal of Commerce, February/ 12, 1889.] 

Two papers have been started at Hartford, Connecticut, with 
this name. We have not seen enough of them to know very 
thoroughly how either will be; conducted, but we arc gla,d to see 
the banner of Congregationalism hoisted broadly before the 
world. It is the banner of our Puritan fathers ; the banner of 
peace, of liberty, of brotherly love, and Christian energy. More 
of the New England character grows out of its religious organi- 
zation, than people are aware of. The influence of that organi- 
zation is felt iipon every citizen, though only a minority are 
church members. If liberty is worth anything and useful any- 
where ; if men may bo trusted to govern themselves ; or if self- 
government is a thing to be desired under any circumstances, it 
would seem that a Christian church affords those circumstances. 
Churches are very apt to include some self-righteous nwn and 
women, some self-conceited persons, and perhaps .some hypo- 
crites, or at least persons who are no better than they should be, 
and not so good by a great deal as they think themselves to be. 
11 



242 THE CONGREGATIONALIST. 

But after all, cliurclies generally are at least a little select. 
There is not in them so large a proportion of ignorance nor vice, 
nor bad habits, as in the political community at large. If politi- 
cal society, when it governs itself, after all its faults, makes up a 
better government than any other which could be made up for 
it, then we think churches will be best governed when they gov- 
ern themselves. We know there are man)' men who think so- 
ciety unfit to govern itself, and they generally suppose that it 
would be a great blessing to their country, if only they could 
themselvesjust govern everybody else. But so far as we have 
been acquainted with such men, either in or out of the church, 
we have not thought their views of government of that liberal 
cast, and their feelings of that enlarged benevolence, which 
made us desirous of putting our country or even ourselves en- 
tirely into their hands. There is, too, this strange contradiction 
in their logic, that while they think men incapable of governing 
themselves, they still think that some men are not only excep- 
tions to this incapacity, but such exceptions, that they are able 
besides governing themselves to govern all other men. The his- 
tory of the world has proved that those who have been clothed 
with absolute authority were in general the very worst persons 
who could have been selected for that purpose, or else, that to 
clothe a man with such authority does of itself spoil him and 
render him unfit for its exercise. 

Our fathers thought self-government a most desirable thing, 
not mei-ely as a personal matter to themselves, but in its influ- 
ence upon society and the destiny of their posterity. They de- 
clared that men were born free, and in their political relations 
equal ; and that sovereignty is in the people, and to be exercised 
by them. They took great pains to guard self-government so 
that it should never be lost. They determined that no man 
should ever be tried for any crime, but by a jury of his equals ; 
that nothing should be done to interrupt tlie freest exercise of 
speech or the press, and that the people should always have the 
uninterrupted right to meet for the discussion of public mea- 
sures, and to form such associations with regard to them as they 
should deem best. Wlien so large a number of people were to 
act in regard to matters of govei'nment, tliat the whole mass 
could not assemble in one place, they provided that the people 
should, in the exercise of tlie most perfect freedom, choose dele- 
gates to represent their local divisions and various interests ; but 
so jealous were they of abuses by these delegates, and so well 
did they understand how power corrupts the mind and engen- 
ders tyranny, that they required all these delegates to resign their 
trusts into the hands of the people again, fully and entirely, after 



THE CONGREGATIONALIST. 243 

only very short terms of office. Most of their officers and repre- 
sentatives were elected for one year only, some for only half a 
year, and very few for more than two years. Self-government, 
secured by the free exercise of all these " inalienable rights," 
they considered so important, that to gain and keep the blessing, 
they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
Sooner than submit to anything else, they Avere ready to saci'ifice 
all that men count dear on earth. Congregationalism adopts 
these views, and acts upon them. The Congregational churches 
of New England are the most perfect exhibitions of self-govern- 
ment that are to be found on earth. Each church is a commu- 
nity of itself, — an independent sovereignty, — rendering to all the 
churches around it the charities of good neighborhood and Chris- 
tian affection, but acknowledging »o authority over itself any- 
where out of itself, except in God. No officers are clothed with 
any power to rule. The pastor, deacons, and the members, each 
and all, enjoy the influence which wisdom and goodness procure, 
and no more. The pastors are of course treated with respect, 
unless by misconduct they forfeit their claims ; and if they do 
their duty as good men, they enjoy an affiictionate regard and 
confidence, and exert an influence over their people, which mere 
power never can confer. As to all the rest, he has most influ- 
ence who has most piety and most wisdom, allowing something 
of course to wealtli, which everywhere confers a certain amount 
of influence. But nowhere on the face of the earth, have wis- 
dom and goodness a more predominating sway than in the New 
England cliurches. The result of a system so free, and bearing 
so equally on all, is to bring the wisdom of all into the common 
stock for the common good. The experience of the aged, and 
the zeal of the young, the prudence of the timorous, and the 
darino- of the brave, all mino-le too-ether, and, in general, harmo- 
niously. Under such circumstances, men learn to differ m opm- 
ion without alienation of heart, and minorities acquiesce cheer- 
fully in the decisions of majorities, for they have none of the 
corrosive feeling that they have been abused or oppressed, but 
they know that everything has been done fairly. Under such 
circumstances it comes about, more than anywhere else, that 
every member becomes acquainted with all the common interests 
of the association, and gets his feelings engaged for their ad- 
vancement. In the discussions about the common good in a sys- 
tem so free, the powers of the mind are enlarged, and the heart 
made better. The modest and timid are encouraged, and many 
a young man finds out his powers of thought and argument, and 
even of eloquence, and gets confidence in himself, and becomes a 
man of tenfold more importance in society than otherwise he 



244 THE CONGREGATIONAL 1ST. 

would have been. These associations possess in themselves the 
quality of perpetual youth, or, at any rate, of recovering that 
state if for a time old age should creep upon them. If some 
man, who in his youth acquired influence, holds on to it injurious- 
ly when he grows old, and if in growing old he loses the ardor 
of his youth and becomes selfish, his influence at farthest dies 
when he dies. He has no power to associate others around him- 
self who can perpetuate the same chilling control. When he is 
gone, the field of influence is open again, and the church is set 
entirely free. The peace of the New England churches is not 
the peace of Rome or Spain, or of any other place where stern 
government prevents discontent from manifesting itself ; it is not 
the peace of death, nor of slavery, nor of subjugation, but of active 
good will, of intelligent contentment, and of vig(irous cooperation. 
Who that has a heart would not rather have influence in such a 
society, than all the power that official rule could give him ? 

We think our readers can see in all this a system to make 
men of honesty, of liberality, of intelligence and energy, — to 
make, in fact, Yankees, just such as Yankees are. We think 
they can see that more of the Yankee character grows out of 
Congregationalism, than they have before supposed, and that it 
is a system more important to the literary, political, mei-cantile, 
and all other interests of our country than they have been aware 
of. The very generosity which the system inspires has induced 
New England men to yield to other systems when they have left 
their native land. There have not been wanting, too, in New 
England, men who, lacking the true spirit of the society and 
institutions around them, have been disposed to recommend 
other systems, which confer more power on a few. There aie 
some evils in a Congregational society, as there will be in all so- 
cieties ; and some persons have been inclined to think that 
greater power conferred on a few would remedy these evils ; 
and so there has prevailed extensively in New England a certain 
degree of favor towards more governing systems. Some clergy- 
men, when pestered by the exercise of too much liberty among 
their people to be consistent with their notions of their own dig- 
nity, or, perhaps, when really dealt hardly by, have thought how 
very satisfactory it would be, if only they had the power to re- 
duce such uncomfortable liberty to subjection and silence. The 
aristocratic feeling has been carried so far in fact at home, that 
the perfect simplicity of Congregationalism has been marred in 
several counties in Connecticut, and we believe in Rhode Island, 
by the introduction of a sort of mongrel hierarchy under the 
name of " Consociation." The design is the same as that of all 
other hierarchies, viz : — to give power to the clergy ; a result 



THE CONGREGATIONALIST. 245 

which the experience of the world, and especially of the Chris- 
tian Church, has proved to be most disastrous to its interests. 
We hope the churches who have been led unthinkingly to adopt 
this false principle, though it be but in a comparatively moderate 
degree, will throw it off immediately and entirely. If they be- 
lieve in self-government, let them adhere to that beautiful prin- 
ciple. But if they think themselves unable to govern them- 
selves, let them adopt the blessings of being governed to the 
full, and choose a Pope at once. There is no midway point be- 
tween the two extremes, where sense and reason can meet. 
Men should govern themselves, or they should be governed, 
wholly and entirely. The principle is good for everything, or it 
is good for nothing. Thei-e is no making it better by mixing. 

As there is no political government on the whole so efficient 
for all good purposes and so inefficient for bad ones as a govern- 
ment of the people, so it is in religious matters with Congrega- 
tionalism. Wealth and talents and family may sometimes pro- 
tect a bad church member from the censures which his miscon- 
duct demands ; but on the whole there will be fewer such cases 
than under any other system. There will be, and there is, more 
tenderness toward the weak and ignorant when they fall, and 
more stern and unflinching faithfulness in dealing with the pow- 
erful, than is to be found elsewhere. This is proved by the fact, 
that to be excommunicated by a Congregational church is a 
much deeper disgrace, and is set down as a more certain evi- 
dence of bad character, than the excommunication of any other 
tribunal. If injustice is done even there, it is generally brought 
about by the clergy, and not by the people. Indeed the good 
sense and rectitude of the people are in most cases an overmatch 
for all such attempts, and with very few exceptions the minds of 
the clei-gy remain uncontaminated to any dangerous degree with 
the love of domination, and tliey lead in ways of generosity and 
faithfulness. Congregationalism avoids contention as far as it is 
possible to do so, and on the whole provides the best possible 
means of putting an end to it when it exists. Each church has 
its own troubles and no more. It is not obliged to take part in 
contentions out of its own limits, originating perhaps at a dis- 
tance, and about matters in which it feels little or no interest. If 
contentions spring up, as unhappily they will, the consciousness 
which both parties feel that they are accountable to the people, 
puts them at once on their good behavior ; and as there is no 
grand system of j-eligious judicatories and appeals, there is no 
machinery for prolonging controversy, and no special grandeur 
and importance given to persons merely from the fact of their 
being litigants. As there are no courts which can compel the 



246 THE CONGREGATIONAL 1ST. 

attendance of parties before tlicin, public sentiment demands that 
controversies which cannot otherwise be settled shall be submit- 
ted to arbitration, and he wlio refuses the advice of other 
churches when he himself can choose half the advisers, is apt to 
be suspected, from the fact, of bcin^ coi\scious that his cause is a 
bad one. When other churches are invited to assist by their ad- 
vice in the settlement of dillicuUies, they do not become parties. 
Their ])osition is that of friends to botli parties. It is not their 
quairel, and no pow(!r can compel them to take part in it as 
their own. Over the whole system, the clergy, by tlieir Associa- 
tions in counties and their Gen(>ral Associations in States, exert a 
wide intluence, which, thoutfji there is no authority in it, acts 
with a real elliciency which ouijfht to be entirely satisfactory to 
them. 

We are happy to say that Conirreii^atioualism in fact pervades, 
and is the plan of all tiie relii^ious denominations of New Eng- 
land, except that of the AIi!tlu)dists. Tiu^y have a government 
much less in accordance with our free political institutions. The 
Baptists are everywhere Congregationalists, and Episcopacy, in 
this countiy, though it retains consideiable ]K)mp and circum- 
stance, has nevertheless very wisely assimilated itself to our insti- 
tutions in oth(!r respects, and based itself very distinctly ujion 
the good will, the ])rotection, and the supreme control of the 
people. Indeed, in some respects the Episcopal clergy are more 
dependent on the people, than in Congregationalism itself. 

We have taken much pleasure in writing this article, as we al- 
ways do in contemplating in this way the happy institutions of 
liberty, especially of Ihl)I(^ liberty, — the liberty and ecpinlity 
which Jesus Christ has taught us, and exemplilied bj' his exam- 
ple as well as his ])r(>ce|)ts. We think wo. ha\e very amply sus- 
tained the (leclaralion with wliich we set out, that "the banner 
of Congrega(i()nalism is the l)ai\ner of peace, of liberty, of broth- 
erly love and Christian energy !" -We hope we have done some- 
thing to renn)ve from the minds of those who look on the New 
.l<]ngland policy as dangerous, their groundless fears, and from 
the minds of our readers who are Congregationalists, the impres- 
sion, if they have it, that there ai-e other systems better than 
tlmt, or as good as that, or anything like as good as that, in its 
practical results. Such opinions we are deeply convinced are en- 
tirely erroneous. We had a spice of them ourselves once, when we 
lived in New England and had no opportunity for a practical com- 
parison of dillerent systems ; and we have not been cured of those 
notions by disappointment or jtique, but, as we think, by a calm 
observance, luuler advantageous circumstances, of the workings 
of various systems. Those notions were entertained thought- 



CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONS. 247 

lessly ; tliey have been eradicated tliouglitfully, and upon more 
perfect knowledge. They are, at any rate, cured so (rdectuiilly, 
that we have come to consider the (>oiigregationalism of New 
1-Cnghuid as above all prices in its elFects upon character and the 
destiny of our country and the world. And we hope that wher- 
ever the sons of Now Et\gland go hereafter and establish their 
religious institutions, they will hoist the baiUK^r of (-ongrciga- 
tionalism high, and nail it to th(; mast, and rally around it with- 
out a thought of its abandonment. Ijet their religious policy be 
founded in the largest liljcrty, and the most entire sov(!reignty of 
the peo[)lc. It is their duty to their Puritan forefathers ; it is 
their duty to themsf^lves, and not less so to their country. It is 
their duty to tlu; Christian religion and the founder of that re- 
ligion, Jesus Christ himself, wIkjhi alone th(»y are at liberty to 
call Miister. 

We hope, therefore, that the newspapers in Hartford, to which 
we alluded at the outscst, will be conducted in a maimer worthy 
of the high title which tlusy have assumed, and that they will 
teach their read(!rs to stand by their personal rights in religious 
as well as political matters, not for the sake of tliemselvcs mctrely, 
but in the discharge of high duty, from which, as American 
Christians, they cannot excuse themselves. 



CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONS. 

\_From t/ic Coiif^rcgalional Observer, 1841.] 

It has long been a matter of complaint among the best friends 
of Congregationalism, that thei-e is among us too little attach- 
ment to our distinctive principles. Our denomination have dif- 
fered from most others in this respect. While a commendable 
degree of zeal has been manifested in sustaining great priiici])les 
of Christian doctrimis, and a disposition, when nujuired, to con- 
tend earn(!Stly for the faith once delivered to tin; saints, we have 
overlooked the importance of standing (irmly by tliosi; principles 
of order and religious liberty, which our fath(M's sullered so much 
in rescuing from the rubbish which had overlaid them. And we 
have often inquired, why is this apathy ? We v(!n(M-ate our an- 
cestry ; we laud them for their self-sacrifice, and their noble 
achievements ; while we undervalue thefruits of their labor, and 
the glorious legacy which they l((ft us. We have asked, why has 
not more interest betm felt, to keep our people, and especially our 
j'oung people, well instructed as to our distinctive princ^iples ? 
Why do not intelligent members of our churches take more pains 
to inform themselves, and diffusci information on these subjects ? 



248 CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONS. 

Many causes have contributed to produce this apathy. But 
we can tliink of none whicli has done more than our policy with 
regard to home missions at the West. We have taken the lead 
of the rest of the country, in i-egard to our contributions to this 
cause, and w(! have suffered Presbyterians to lead us in their dis- 
tribution. We have treated it as a matter of indilFerence in the 
planting of tlie churches, whether we erected them on the basis 
of our own principles, or on one veiy different. Nay, our young 
men have gone to the West, expressly advised by our fathers 
here, to throw off" their Congregationalism, and bring their minds, 
as best tliey could, to conform to J-'reshyterinnism. And when 
our bretliren, the members of our own families and churches, 
have gone westward, and sent back for our aid in rearing Chi-is- 
tian institutions after our model, now made more dear to them by 
their removal, and by the recurrence of their fond remembrance 
to the scenes of their childhood, we have sent them the means oi 
building institutions that must be strange, and averse to their 
early associations. And thus we have brought forward a gene- 
ration of them, that, as it were, speak one half in the speech of 
.^shdod, and one half in the Jews' language. And so far as the 
gratification of their early associations is concerned, they have 
asked of us bread, and we have given them a stone. 

Now this fact has had its effect upon our churches and our 
children at liome. It is equivalent to our saying to them, that 
our distinctive principles are not worth preserving. This lan- 
guage is virtually held, every time we contribute our funds to 
sustain other institutions, wlien we send our young ministers to 
the West, under advice to abandon the J\ew England institutions, 
and in all that we do, in preferring Presbyterian institutions to 
our own. 

Now if no other cause than this Averc in operation, it were a 
matter to be expected, that our people would come to regard our 
own institutions as hardly worih the pains needful to their pre- 
servation. And this feeling, once introduced, does not stop with 
our relations to Presbyterians, who hold the same distinguish- 
ing doctrines with us. Put it begets a state of indifference, 
which exposes us to ini'oads from sects who reject these doctrines. 
It has done much to foster a laxity of feeling as to religimis 
principles, and thus to weaken the churches planted by our 
fafb.ers. We are wasting their heritage by this well-meant but 
mistaken policy. We are giving every propagator of error an 
advantage against our own children, by instilling into these chil- 
di-en the Indief that our own institutions are not seriously to be 
valued above others. 

We know it will be said, that the sustaining of the doctrines 



CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONS. 249 

is more important than principles of church government. But 
principles of ord(!r ai-e necessary to the sustaining of doctrines ; 
and we cannot attain the end without the means. Let this indif- 
ference as to })rinciples of order prevail, and confusion, and every 
evil work, would, ere long, come in, and the doctrines would go 
under a cloud. We much mistake, if the unfortunate union be- 
tween Presbyterians and C^ongregationalists has not done much 
to introduce confusion and heresy into both denominations, in 
those regions where the union exists. 



CONGREGATIONAL TIOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
[Fro7n the Co7igre^altonal Observer, Dec. 18, 1841.] 

Messrs. Editoks : — The controversy about Congregational 
Home Missions is getting so fierce that the dust which rises will, 
I fear, hide the I'eal matter at issue. It is better, as you say, to 
keep cool, and not only on this, but on all other subjects of Christian 
discussion. I had i-eason to thank you for presenting my views 
in favor of a separate organization very early in this discussion. 
I hope you will allow me now to endeavor to bring the minds of 
your readers back to the real question. Those who think Congre- 
gationalists should carry on their Home Missionary o[)erations dis- 
tinct from Presbyterians claim tiiat tlieir object is none other 
than the glory (jf God and the salvation of men. I do not see 
therefore why the movement should be stigmatized, or perhaps 
I should say if I would keep clear of the same fault, denomi- 
nated " sectarian." Nor do I see why it should be called a " cru- 
sade." It is as easy to call a thing by one name as another, 
but the common way and the fairest way is to let every ciiiid 
wear the name given by its father. 

I suppose all Congregationalists will desire to adopt that mode 
of operation whicli will most honor God in the salvation of the 
largest number of our fellow-citizens. The inquiry is, how shall 
we soonest plant Christian institutions all over our country, and 
plant them in such a form that they will flourish thnnigh all time, 
I think our country will be much more largely blest by the sepa- 
rate action of Congregationalists. I beli(;ve that if you plant 
your churches Presbyterian, they will grow old and decrepit ; 
but if you plant them Congregational, tliey will flourish in con- 
stant youth and vigor ; that ia fact if our country is to be a vig- 
orous Christian country, its churches must be organized as Con- 
gregational churches. I know that while Congregationalists 



250 CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONS. 

acted separately tliey did spread Congregationalism, but that the 
union with Presbyterians has transformed almost all the churches 
so formed into Presbyterian churches. If there had never been 
a union, I believe New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, would 
now have been Congregational States ; but the union has pre- 
vented this and made all these States Presbyterian. These state- 
ments I believe will hardly be controverted by any one on the 
other side. Certainly, then, those Congregationalists who come 
forward with statements so important ought to be patiently heard 
while they urge Congregationalists to change their mode of ope- 
ration. There are many Congregationalists who are controlled by 
these considerations and who think it their duty no longer to sustain 
the union. They must have channels through which thej* can act 
or they Avill perhaps not act at all — certainly not efficiently. There 
will, therefore, most unquestionably be such an organization, what- 
ever may be said against it. Let us then make our views understood 
by each other and let each Christian act as he thinks he ought. 
I do not expect that the separate action of those Congregation- 
alists who determine to act separately will produce any of those 
terrible convulsions which are predicted. I do not see the war 
which is so much talked of. I do not expect the destruction of 
the present Home Missionary Society, but I do expect that the 
progress of discussion will create a great deal more Congrega- 
tionalism than exists at present, and that Congregationalists will 
learn that if they would Christianize the world so that it will 
"stay" Christianized, it must be done by spreading Congre- 
gationalism. 

You call upon the Puiitan to say what sort of Congregation- 
alism it would spread by a separate organization. I cannot an- 
swer for the Puritan, but I am quite ready to answer for myself, 
that it is not " consociated" Congregationalism that I would 
spread, nor should I expect any one to see difference enough 
between that and Presbyterianism to induce much effort to spread 
tlie one rather than the other. It is one of tlie most grievous 
deeds of the past years of union with Presbyterianism that Con- 
necticut has become substantially a Presbyterian State.' There 
is no mistake about this. The name of Congregationalism is 
retained, but its reality is gone. A Congreyutional church is 
complete in itself, possessing all the powers necessary for its own 
organization and action, those powers to he exercised hy the vote of 
a majority of the memhers. Consociation takes away tliese essen- 
tial characteristics, subjecting the church in all its movements to 
the control of the Consociation. I have before me the rules of 
the Consociation of the Eastern District of Fairfield County. I 
quote " Art. 1st. The duties of this Consociation shall be to 



CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONS. 251 

settle cand dismiss ministers within tlieir limits — decide cases of 
discipline — and to adjudicate in all cases relating- to the interests 
of religion in the district." Here i.s Congregationalism swept 
away at a blow. Tiie churches cannot elect their own pastors, 
nor even their deacons if the Consociation choose to interfere. 
The power of appointment is as absolutely vested in the Conso- 
ciation as it is in an English bishop. Further along they say 
that " either the pastor, church or socictij'' may call tlie Conso- 
ciation, and it is very evident that the (consociation may go witli- 
out being called by any one if it so pleases. Is this the liberty 
with which Christ made the churches of Connecticut free ? I am 
grieved and vexed that the clergy of my native State should thus 
have taken away the beauty of Zion ; and I think the churches 
who have thus supinely allowed the precious talent committed to 
them to be lost will deserve to be oppressed by shcphei-ds who 
care not for their flock, unless they speedilj^ withdraw from so 
dangerous a position. It is not to spread such Congregational- 
ism as this, that I shall give my money or my prayers. 

Perhaps I have made corrections enough, yet I will say one 
thing more. The views of the Puritan it seems to me lack some- 
thing of purity, and perhaps this is the reason why you are not 
answered. It had quite an article the other week to prove that 
no man could acquire a right to preach but by license from the 
clergy, and it stated distinctly that no church could elect one of 
its own members and set him to be their pastor. I do not under- 
stand Congregationalism so, nor do I understand primitive church 
history so. It is generally expedient that men should have the 
sanction of some body (jf ministers, before tluy preach, and gene- 
rally expedient that a church should call in other churches to 
assist in the installation of its pastoi-, but not necessary ; and 
when a council acts, it is by the authority of the churches and in 
their name, not by the authority of the clergy. This is the doc- 
trine of Congregationalism. The doctrine of clerical power is 
the great distinctive feature of Episcopacy. It is the church, not 
the clergy which is the pillar and ground of the truth. 

It is quite time that the Congregationalists of New England 
had made up their minds whether divine right belongs to the 
clergy or the people. We had a document put forth not long 
since in the shape of " A Pastoral Letter from the North Conso- 
ciation of Litchfield County." This document says " two things 
are essential to the constitution of the pastor, a call from God to 
take the office, and ordination to confer the needful gifts by the 
laying on of the hands of the apostles and elders." This would 
be in good keeping in some places, but not among Congregation- 
alists, and in my judgment the latter part is a pure assumption. 



252 OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 

■\vitliout the least -warrfint of Scriptuie. If any of the members 
of that Consociation thinks he can make out Scriptuie for it, let 
him try, and layman as I am and pressed with other cares, I will 
still venture to defend the opposite ground. Suppose a man has 
the first of these requisites and is in the midst of a clergy who 
refuse him the second. What shall he do? Why, according to 
this pastoral letter he must obey man rather than God, and do 
nothing ! I think the Sciiptures would teach him to do like 
John Bunyan, go to preacliing. God never lays down his rules 
in a manner to involve such absurdities. If God calls, we must 
obey. If men will sanction it, all the better ; but if they will not, 
then they must be disregarded. I say as does the pastoral letter, 
" let the people honor the office of the pastor as a holy and fruit- 
ful ordinance of God," and I would counterpoise it by adding, 
let the pastors honor the churches as the foundation of all orders 
and offices, and to which all are to be the servants ; and let them 
not claim more in the churches than is claimed by the Great 
Head, who is content to be an elder brother. Quo. 



OFFICERS OF TPIE CHURCH. 
[From the JVcw York Evangelist, 1841.] 

A Correspondent of your paper, Pkesbyter who seems, 
upon the whole, to be quite liberal in his intentions, has brought 
together upon the subject of the officers of the church, what ap- 
pears to me a singular cluster of opinions. He makes out very 
clearly, that the primitive churches were organized with two offi- 
cers and no more, viz. ; pastors and deacons, the latter for the 
care of church cliarities. He thinks, nevertheless, that it is better 
there should be another order, viz. ; ruling elders, because it is ex- 
pedient as he thinks, and because although there is no " express 
warrant for this office in the Bible," yet "there are several 
intimations in the epistles, which seem to favor the institution." 
These h(! considers representatives of the people, and the expe- 
diency of tire office, he says, " is so clearly seen, that a large por- 
tion of the Congregational churches appoint standing committees 
or a large board of deacons, with powers similar to those of a 
session." 

Congregationalists have obviously some right to interpret their 
own })olicy, and I hope you ^vill allow me, as one, to put this 
matter straight, even though I should say some things not in ex- 
act accordance with your own views. It is quite plain, that if the 
primitive churches appointed only teachers and agents for their 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 253 

charities, that all the principal matters of churcli business were 
reserved to tiie cluirch. Tlie admission to membership, and the 
administration of discipHne, were not delegated at all. It is 
(squally plain, that the election of ruling elders would have been 
the introduction of another system entirely. It would have put 
an end to the democratic principle, by substituting the aristocra- 
tic. In my judgment, there are no " intimations" even, that any 
such change ever took place, or that the perfect Congregational- 
ism in which the churches were instituted at first, was not found 
the expedient plan, so long as the advancement of Christ's king- 
dom was the only object of his professed followers. It was under 
this S3'stem of individual liberty, and individual responsibility to 
their grand Master, that the (Jhristians went everywhere, each 
one according to his own judgment, "preaching the gospel," and 
it was under this system that tlie word had good power, and 
multitudes were added to the Churcli. If all bands had been re- 
quired to wait the sanction of the riding elders, what would have 
become of all this evangelical labor ? 

If ruling elders were ever wanted in the Church, either in the 
primitive or modern ages, it seems to me they must have been 
wanted at the very outset, when the converts, full of all the errors 
of Judaism, and Paganism, and heathen philosophy, and feeble in 
Christian knowledge, must have had more need of government, 
than ever afterwards. Tiie (church had before Ix^en under tutors 
and governors ; but this was the time of her emancipation. There 
was now a nobler and larger work for the sons of God to per- 
form, than ever before, and they were told to do it ; controllecl by 
no human power, and following only in the footsteps of their 
great captain. 

But let me set Presbyter right, about the matter of Presbyte- 
rianism being a representative form of church government, and so 
like Congregationalism that Congregationalists, feeling the neces- 
sity of the case, do virtually establish sessions. In my judgment, 
these ideas' are all mistakes. Presbyterianism is not repul)li(;an- 
ism, nor is it in any proper sense a representative government. It 
the government of this nation had been organized by the election 
of a President and Senate for life, in whom were vested all the 
powers of the Constitution, what v/ould it have been called ? Not 
a representative government, certainly, nor a republic in any 
sense. It could have been called nothing but an elective aristo- 
cracy. If, instead of electing a national Senate, the Constitution 
of each State had provided that its officers should consist of a 
Governor and S(;naLe elected for life, and that the Union should 
be formed by a Congress of delegates chosen by the various State 
Senates from their own bodies respectively, what would this have 



254 OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 

been called ? The people would have expressed their opinion 
at once, and there would be an end of their influence. If such 
a plan had been proposed to the Convention for framing the Fe- 
deral Constitution, in my opinion, rather than adopt it, they would 
have thought the people better represented by declaring General 
Washington the unlimited monarch of the realm, the crown to de- 
scend in the line of his heirs forever. It certainly would never 
have been thought of, that such a government was composed of 
representatives of the people. Such a government could never 
have been planned, but with the intention of shutting out the 
people from all participation in power. 

Nothing can be more erroneous than the notion that the stand- 
ing committees of Congregational churches exercise similar power 
with Presbyterian sessions. There may be, possibly, a few 
churches who are called Congregational, and who have so mistak- 
en Congregationalism, as to suppose that names constituted the 
thing, and so contented themselves with being ruled by a ses- 
sion, if only it was called a standing committee. But there are 
no such churches in New England. There, and wherever else 
Congiegationalism really exists, there is no power delegated to 
any one, but the power to accomplish the resolves of the whole 
church. Standing committees stand but one year, and then are 
resolved into the general mass. They do not admit members, 
nor excommunicate them, nor hold any of the powers of discipline ; 
they do not appoint delegates to associations or councils, nor ex- 
ercise authority in any way. They are mere committees, acting 
as they are directed by the church. If such committees ever 
seek to prevent the free action of the churches, or attempt any- 
thing on their own authority, it is an usurpation, and every intel- 
ligent Congregational church would take prompt measures to cor- 
rect the wrong. 

It is evident from what I have said, that no two systems can 
be less alike than Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. It 
is quite true, that many churches of Congiegationaiists have, 
in deference to the custom around them, made their organization 
Presbyterian. Under such circumstances, perhaps, the Congre- 
gational fec'liug of equality will be conti-olling for years. But it 
is sure to die at last, and the control of the rulers to be substi- 
tuted in its place. Presbyter says, " those systems of church gov- 
ernment in which bishops and elders monopolize the authority, 
ruling over, and independent of the biollierhood, are plainly un- 
sciiptural." I ask him, then, what good reason there can be for 
setting aside a system in practice, which acts directly in accord- 
ance with this principle, and substituting one which contradicts 
it ? If we believe that the right and resoonsibility of govern- 



RULING WITH A HEAVY HAND. 255 

ment is by God's appointment with the people, why should we 
attempt to carry an opposite principle into operation by choos- 
ing a king or an aristocracy ? Presbyter writes like a man per- 
fectly sincere, and there are no doubt a multitude who think with 
him. The object of Christims, whether they adopt the one or ' 
the other of these systems, is the same, viz. : the a.dvancement of 
the cause of evangelical religion by the most efficient means. 
The two denominations have acted for years very harmoniously to- 
gether, upon a sort of understanding that nothing should be said 
about the matter, but a new state of the case now exists, and it is of 
great importance that both systems should be well understood, 
that the best may be adopted. If one is better than the other, 
they who have heretofore adopted the poorer of the two have 
no more reason to count the explanation unkind, than a com- 
pany of reapers would have to complain of the man who should 
present to them a better sickle than the one they were using. 



CONGREGATIONALISM OUT OF NEW ENGLAND. 
[From the JVew England Puritan, 1842.] 

There is no error so industriously repeated, and none which 
exerts so much influence as this, that Avhile Congregationalism is 
a very good thing for people so enlightened and orderly as those 
of New England,.it is not at all the thing for such communities as 
exist elsewhere. The people of New York are said to be hetero- 
geneous, not used to managing their own affairs, and not com- 
petent to manage them. A distinguished gentleman from New 
England, now residing in Michigan, expressed the sentiment by 
saying, " Congregationalism will do very well in New England, 
but the people of Michigan need to be ruled with a heavy hand." 
By " a heavy hand," the gentleman meant Presbyteiianism. I 
liave heard tliis opinion expressed in various forms by men of 
high standing in the churches, a thousand times. When the Ta- 
bernacle passed into Congregational hands, a Rev. Doctor of Di- 
vinity declared in a public assembly, that not ten respectable 
families could be found in New York, who would attend a Con- 
gregational meeting. I have perceived, by conversations with 
gentlemen fi-om New England, tliat the notion that Congregation- 
alism is unfit for any other part of the country than that, has 
been industriously circulated there. This error has gathered 
strength from a considerable number of facts. Churches called 
Congregational have, one after anothei-, failed in New York and 
elsewhere. The most noticeable of these failures, perhaps, was 
that of Mr. Todd's church, in Philadelphia. It would not be 



256 SUCCESS OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 

expedient to state here all the causes which resulted in the fail- 
ure of that once hopeful enterprise. It is sufficient to say, 
that the failure was not caused by the Congregational mass of 
people, but by the leading men, who would have been the en- 
lightened rulers, had the church been Presbyterian. So far as 
I have remarked, the difficulties in churches uniformly arise 
among the leading men, who are supposed to possess superior 
enlightenment. The mass of members, who are supposed to be 
too unlearned for self-government, generally behave very well. 
In New York, Congregationalism has never had a fair experi- 
ment, until the formation of the Tabernacle Church. Several 
Congregational churches had been formed, but, in some cases, 
the Congregationalism was overridden by some fanatical purpose, 
to which it was rendered subservient, or else there was too much 
feebleness in resources of some sort, to warrant any tolerable 
hope of success. As to the Tabernacle, it has so far been the 
most successful religious enterprise ever undertaken in this city. 
The West is rising in Congregationalism. About one-half the 
churches in Illinois are Congregational. In Michigan, a strong 
Congregational movement was made about two years ago, which 
has been attended with great success, so that now that State may 
be put down as half Congregational, with a rapid propor- 
tionate gain in favor of Congregationalism. In Wisconsin and 
Iowa, Cono-regationalism takes the lead. The tide is turning in 
all directions, and the question is no longer agitated, whether 
Congregational churches shall become Presbyterian, but whether 
Presbyterian churches shall become Congregational. The fact 
is, the church polity of New England is the only polity fitted to 
our country, or to real Christians anywhere. Ignorance, super- 
stition, and the supremacy of human authority over the word of 
God, require hierarchy to support them, clothed with power in 
propoilion as these things are to be accomplished. But the 
spread of the gospel is a work which puts every disciple of 
Christ in motion, under the dii-ect control of his Master in heaven. 
The superior energy and enterprise of Congregationalism is as 
conspicuous out of New England as in it. It can live and flour- 
ish wherever the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can live and 
flourish. Christ left the Church Congregational in the largest 
sense. He committed the mighty principles which he had pro- 
mulgated, to the hands and hearts of all his people, with the 
command to all, " Go preach the gospel ;" and unless the disci- 
ples of Christ feel this command ever pressing upon them, indi- 
vidually, their Christian energy languishes. Let every New 
England Christian disabuse himself of the delusion that Congre- 
gationahsm is only suited to New England. Congregationalism 



UNION WITH PRESBYTERIANS. 257 

has been one of the chief instruments in making New England 
Avhat it is, and if other parts of our country, and tlie world, are 
to be made what New England is, it must be by the same means, 
('oiigregationalism is the system of church government which is 
iitted to all men, and which ought to be established every - 
■where. 

Union with Presbyterians. I see, by late repoi'ts from Wis- 
consin and Iowa, that the grand error of putting Ccjngregation- 
alism in alliance with Presbyterian judicatories is still at work. 
An end must be put to this, before Congregationalism will put 
on its glory. The New School Presbyterians are talking very 
cozily about these days to Congregationalists, and the Old School 
declare on all sides that they do not dislike Congregationalism 
half as bad as they do the New School, and in fact that they al- 
most like us. So the old scandal, that the New School were 
" no better than Congregationalists " is turning to be a compli- 
ment. The fact is, there is no dilTerence between the Schools in 
relation to us. Both dislike our system, and both will oppose 
and overthrow it whenever they can. The most liberal New 
School divines hei-eabouts resist every effort to establish Congre 
gationalism. A Yankee would not know why, yet he will find 
it so in every movement. There has lately been a movement for 
the establishment of a Congregational church in the south part 
of Brooklyn. There is a population of Yankees there, some of 
whom are decided Congregationalists. Dr. Co.x and his people, 
with other Presbyterians, looked at the spot two years ago, 
and made quite an effort to establish a Presbyterian church, but 
did not succeed. Last spring there was a Congregational move- 
ment. The matter soon attracted attention. There was a small 
meeting-house on the ground, which was about to be vacated by 
the Episcopal Society, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Stone. If 
the neighboring clergymen would have given their countenance 
to the Congregational movement, a flourishing church might 
have been at once established. If they really think so well of 
Congregationalism, why did they not bid it God speed ? It was 
evidently the way in which the best success could be expected. 
Yet while negotiations were pending among the various parties, 
the Old School men of New York bought the littlo church, put 
an end to negotiation, and started oif an Old School preacher. 
Two or three months have been enough to show the inaptness 
of that movement; for the clergyman has been witlidrawn, and 
the house re-sold to the New School, who are now about to try 
their hand. Not one word of assent, so far as I have heard, has 
the Congregational movement ever had from any Pi-esbyterian 
clergyman of either School. What is the use, then, of trying to 



258 HOSTILITY OF PRESBYTEIIIANISM. 

sustain an alliance where there is no real sympathy ? The clergy 
and their powerful friends are very sincere, or think themselves 
so, in their kind professions. They have seen the beauties of 
Congi-egationalism, and, like Dr. Bcccher, they can praise it ; 
but, like him, they arc Presbyterians, and they do not want the 
beautiful creatui-e to come too near their castles. Tliey believe 
the common people are not competent to carry on churcli fiffairs, 
and that the congregated wisdom of the clergy alone is sufficient 
for such things. 

It is strange to me, who have long looked upon it, that it 
should be so. But so it is. Old School and New School are 
alike the irreconcilable opponents of Congregationalism. They 
do not believe in it, and they will not have it, if they can help it. 
Yet there is no difficulty in living in close neighborhood and good 
neighborhood with Presbyterians. But it must be done by 
placing our alliance upon the points of agreement, and not upon 
those of difference. Presbyterians and Congregationalists can 
agree and cooperate in Sabbath-schools, Bible societies, and 
many other things, but they cannot coopeiate in church govern- 
ment. It is absurd, and the ready Avay to controversy, thei'efore, 
for the two denominations to unite in the establishment of churches, 
or in church judioatoi'ies. The effect has been bad universally, 
and Congregationalism has always been obliged to yield every- 
thing, or resist, or break away. When the two denominations 
meet together in Presbytery, they seldom understand the union 
in the same way. Presbyterians look on the Presbytery as an 
authoritative judicatorjs witli power over the churches, and bound 
to govern them. Congiegationalists count the church as the 
highest ecclesiastical judicatory on earth, and the ]-*resbytery as 
possessed of no power whatever. IIow can the two parties man- 
age such opposite opinions hariiioniousiy ? They never have, and 
they never will. Presbyterianism first demands union, then the 
right to advise, then the enforcement of advice. Entering into 
luiion is but the beginning of controversy. There have been 
many instances like tlie following : In the town of Franklin, in 
this State, there was a large Congregational church. The people 
were most of them from Franklin, and other towns in Connecti- 
cut. They would have been happy and strong, if they had not 
accepted the invitation of the Presbytery of Delaware county to 
an alliance. A union was formed upon very simple principles. 
The church declared its rejection of all authority but that of 
Christ and its own body. It agreed to send delegates to the 
meetings of the Presbytery, to hand in a report of its condition, 
and, in I'eturn, the Presbyteiy agreed to give its advice to the 
church, if, at any time, tlie church should ask it. What mischief 



EVILS OF THE PLAN OF UNION. 259 

could grow out of so simple and friendly a thing as this ? The 
secjuel shows. About a year ago, the cluirch in Franldin, with 

great innocency, employed a graduate from , to preach to 

tliem ; and being acce])table, a contract was made for a year. 
8oon, however, it began to be rumored that the preacher was 
Tuisound. A few of the bnithren were troubled, and some eight 
or ten sent for advice to the Presbytery. The church did not 
ask advice, and so the exigency liad not occurred which author- 
ized tiie Presbytery to take up the; matter. Yet tli(iy did take it 
up, and gave advice in (lie strongest terms : that the preacher 
should be sent away forthwith, and accompanied their advice with 
a notice that Presbytery would meet in Frauklin on a day 
near at hand, to consider further of the matter. Tliey did so 
meet, and ga\e fui'ther advice, declaring that tliose membeis who 
should comply witli their advi(;e should be deemed and taken to 
be the first church in Franklin. The church was distracted and 
torn in pieces by these proceedings. About one-third of the 
church and congregation adopted the advice of Presbytery, and 
declared themselves tlie first church and congregation ; but the 
majority rejected the advice, and, as the civil laws of New York 
recognized them as owners of the property, the adherents to 
Presbytery were compelled to withdraw, and build themselves 
another house. The heart-burnings, the sins, the mischiefs of 
every sort, attendant on such an ad'air, can be imagined. The 
majority were still so much disposed for peace and union, that 
tliey sent delegates to the next meeting of Presbytery, who were 
refused their seats, and so the union was broken. 

The first church in Franklin have now learned so much of the 
sufferings of union, that they will hereafter let Presbyter)' alone. 
They have since settled an excellent pastor from New England, 
but not a clergyman in the ncighborliood will exchange with him, 
or in any way recognize him or the church. Yet the church has 
done nothing but, in the most long-sufiering style, decline the 
advice of the Presbytery. 

The same Presbytery have since been trying their hand in a 
similar manner with another refractory Congregational church in 
union with it. I hope that church will at once take the only 
course which can save it from the scenes of Franklin, viz : with- 
draw from all connection with Presbytery. Such is the effect of 
union. It is the bond of discord. 



260 WORDS AND NAMES. 

WORDS AND NAMES.— NO. I. 
[From the Boston Recorder, July, 1843.] 

A GREAT deal of error grows up in our minds from the gradual 
changes which take place in the meaning of words, and especially 
the application of names to things quite unlike the things wliich 
the}^ originally described. Prcachinr/ has come to be confined in 
its meaning, with most men, to systematic sermonizing from a 
pulpit. Yet the meaning of the term, as used in the I3ible, ex- 
tends to all conversation. In fact, there was in apostolic times 
no preaching which exactly corresponded with the preaching of 
modern times. They that were scattered abroad after the mar- 
tyrdom of Stephen " went ever)' where preaching the word," 
not in systematic sermons, but in conversations by the Avay, or in 
the house, to few and to many, as there was opportunity. In the 
Scripture meaning of the term, therefore, all Christians are 
preachers who proclaim to their fellow-men, in any way, the, 
good news of salvation by Jesus Christ. How absurd, then, is 
it, to insist that none can preach but such as have been ordained, 
or that it requires a different kind of commission to authorize a 
Chiistian to preach a sermon, constructed with its firstly, secondly, 
and thirdly, from Avhat it does to put forth Christian truths 
without numbering them. Every Christian is bound to be a 
preacher at all times. How or when he shall preach, depends on 
circumstances, but as to the Scripture authority in the case, a 
Sabbath-school teacher has precisely the same with an archbishop. 
Both are authorized and commanded to preach the word. 

Church is another name about which a very erroneous impres- 
sion pervades men's minds, from its being attached to organiza- 
tions quite different from the original churches. To the mind of 
the Roman Catholic the word church conveys the idea of the 
Roman Catholic church, with its pope, cardinals, bishops, crosses, 
pictures and masses ; in the mind of an Episcopalian, the word 
canies witli it the apostolic succession of bishops, the surplices 
with which they are dignified, and the formularies by which their 
worship is guided : before the Presbyterian, the word instantly 
arrays tlie General Assembly, and all the '"lower judicatories;" 
and before the Congregationalist, his own parish circle, united in 
covenant, with its pastor and deacons. The impression of the 
Congregationalist is much nearer to the original meaning than 
any of the rest ; but even the little formality of organization 
which enters his mind was entirely absent from the original im- 
port of the word church. It meant, then, the company of be- 
lievers, having no written covenant, no written creed, and no 
officers of any sort ; but bound together in the love of Christ 



WOKDS AND NAMES. 261 

and each other, each performing whatever service he had talents 
or opportunity to perform. The church, at the time of our 
Lord's ascension, consisted of " about an hundred and twenty" 
persons, men and women. This was all that remained of the 
multitudes who had' fed upon the miracles of Jesus, and shouted 
hosanna to the Son of David. On the day of Pentecost the 
members of the church "were all with one accord in one place," 
wlien suddenly there came a sound from heaven, and the Holy 
Ghost fell upon them and those who had come together to see 
the wonder, and upon that day the church had an accession of 
" about three thousand souls," but with no other ceremony than 
baptism. These all became preachers at once, as they retired to 
their various homes in distant places. 

Thus was the church constituted, simple in its structure, ce- 
mented by faith in Christ and love for tlie brethren, and impelled 
to universal expansion by the spirit of heavenly benevolence 
which had been kindled in each heart by the Holy Ghost. Forms 
and ceremonies it had none, except the two sacraments of Bap- 
tism and the Supper; but everj^ member was filled with a spirit 
such as had not before moved our earth — a spirit, which, Avhile 
it submitted to civil governments and ecclesiastical powers, so far 
as it could be done with honesty, yet held every man in such su- 
pi-eme and direct allegiance to the risen Lord, that thrones and 
hierarchies were set at defiance b}^ the weakest saint, whenever 
that supreme law required it. 

From this view of the organized and universal church, we per- 
ceive that any collection of disciples is a church, possessing all 
the power which Christ has conferred, and able to do all things 
which its circumstances require. It cannot control other portions 
of the church, nor prescribe rules for them, but it may prescribe 
rules for itself. In the midst of conflicting opinions, it may draw 
out, in the form of a creed, its views of fundamental doctrine ; 
it ma}'^ establish rules for the orderly and convenient transaction 
of its business ; and it may elect such officers as will enable it to 
carry out, in the best way, the design of Christ in founding his 
church. The object of constructing local churches is that the 
members may enjoy communion together as brethren, and in the 
sacrainents, and that their worshijj may be mciintained inMicly, so 
that the j)eople of the ivorld may come in and hear the word, and be 
brought into the church. This siinplicity of the church should 
never be violated. It should never be forgotten that a church of 
Christ is a company of his disciples, joined together in that char- 
acter only, and that it is not a society to carry out political ov 
moral reforms, or even in its organized capacity to preach the 
gospel beyond its own ordinances. The church covenant must 



262 WORDS AND NAMES. 

require of each member that he shall lead a life of godliness and 
honesty, adorning his profession, leaving him to choose his own 
sphere of labor in the grand business of human improvement. 
She cannot, as a condition of communion, require him to join a 
temperance society, nor forbid him to do so, nor to go as a foreign 
missionary, nor refrain from doing so ; nor can she of right in- 
quire further into his opinions or his practice than is necessary to 
satisfy herself whether he is a disci2)le of Christ or not. Upon 
this simple primitive plan, Christians may live together as breth- 
ren, happy and cordial, tliough they may hold a thousand differ- 
ent opinions upon political and moral subjects, and the best 
methods of doing good abroad in the world. 

The notion, not uncommon, that the church is a society for all 
work, that is a temperance society, an anti-slavery society, a for- 
eign missionary society, and a society for everything else in which 
Christians may be, and oiight to be, engaged for the perfecting of 
the grand consequences of the Christian religion in all their de- 
tails, is preposterous and ruinous. It transforms the church from 
being the joyful and peaceful assembly of disciples, ever the same, 
into the battle-ground of every new thing which comes up, and 
makes it as changeable as the waves of popular excitement. 

Each member of the church is bound, besides supporting his 
own church as first of all, to do with his might whatever else his 
hands find lo do, either by himself or in associations with others 
who think with him. He is bound to be a preacher wherever he 
goes, and to assist other brethren who are ready to devote them- 
selves to evangelical labors at home or abroad, and to go himself 
at the command — not of the church — but of Christ. He is in 
fact bound by his obligations — not to the church — but to Christ, 
to labor with all his might, and every day, and in any field to 
which the Lord may appoint him. Behold, then, the unity, the 
simplicity, the order, and the resistless energy of the church. 

Quo. 



WORDS AND NAMES.— No. II. 
[From the Boston Recorder, July, 1843.] 

Ordination is another word which has been perverted in the 
same manner. It conveys to the mind of each one who reads 
it in the New Testament the idea of such a ceremony as he has 
been accustomed to see performed under this name. But in the 
primitive church, no particular ceremony was established for or- 
dinations, nor did the powers of a disciple to perform service 
in the church depend upon any form. If in ordination, any ce- 



WORDS AND NAMES. 263 

remony was performed, it was but the declaration of office, not 
tJie conferring of it. It was the putting of a man into a place 
which was already his by the events of Providence. Doubtless 
lliere were hundreds of ordinations to various duties with no ce- 
remony at all, the individual being merely designated for his 
place by the election of the brethren, or of some individual or in- 
dividuals whose business it was to arrange the matter, or by such 
indications of Providence as made duty plain to the individual 
himself. 

The virtue which is attached to ordination in all hierarchies, 
and by too many men out of them, is quite remarkable — nothing 
less than that b}' means of the laying on of hands there has been 
handed down from the apostles the exclusive right to preach, and 
especially to administer sacraments, and to ordain successors. 
This strange monopoly is claimed by the clergy, in spite of its 
absurdity. In the first place, it is a most unnatural ariangement 
which they claim to have been established. It shuts up the free 
grace of Christ within the grasp of priests, and brings sinners, 
not to Him who never sends any away empty, but to men who 
are capricious, bigoted, and hard-hearted, often giving them a 
stone who ask for bread. It makes the plan of the gospel a 
changeable plan, the terms of admission to its benefits beino- one 
thing in one age, and another in another age, and in one sect or 
place in the same age directly the opposite of what they are in 
others. Has God embarrassed his great work of redemption by 
such contingencies as these ? But, in the second place, there is 
not one of all the priests who claim this exclusive power by suc- 
cession, who can give a history of his own lineage, or make out 
any tolerable evidence that he is in the hne of descent at all ; for 
this succession has passed through the accidents of eighteen cen- 
turies, most of them exceedmgly dark and doubtful. How awful 
it must be to swing into eternity upon a chain so lono-, and in 
which, if a single link be broken, " tenth or ten thousandth 
breaks the chain alike." If the other end be not fast hooked in 
the rock Peter, and every link carefully welded, how miserable 
must be the condition of the soul who hangs upon it over the bot- 
tomless abyss ! How perplexed must we all be, if the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, or any portion of it, depends on such 
things as these — instead of coming, as it does, fresh and new, 
directly from His hand to every believing hand extended to re- 
ceive it. 

But besides all this, the apostles possessed no powers or gifts 
which were in their nature transmissible. Christ, in wonderful 
disparagement of this claim of ordination, never performed any 
ceremony at the calling of either of them. He merely said, " fol- 



264 WORDS AND NAMES. 

low me," as lie says to his disciples now by his providence. And 
he called them not to be rulers, or to establish a hierarchy, but for 
the very simple purpose of testifyiiig of v'hat they saiv and heard. 
They Avere toitnesses of all that Jesus " began both to do and teach" 
— nothing else. Christ selected the twelve to be continually with 
him. St. Luke records the commission given to them by the Lord, 
as follows: — "Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusa- 
lem and in all Judca, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth." Peter, in recognition of this single design, 
when he called the attention of the church to the necessity of 
filling the place of Judas, said, " Wherefore of these men which 
have companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus went 
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto 
that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be or- 
dained to be a witness with us of his resurrection." How differ- 
ent an address would Peter have made if he had entertained the 
opinions of many modern bishops. Mark, in the third chapter, 
says, " And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, 
and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power 
to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils." This last power it is 
not pretended has been transmitted, except by the Romanists, nor 
even by them, for ordination is not necessary to the woi-king of 
their miracles ; any girl who Avill learn to live without eating, or 
to lie in one position fourteen years, having as much power for 
this purpose as an archbishop or a cardinal. Of the duties as- 
signed to the apostles, that of preaching or testifying is the only 
one which is handed down. There are various other passages re- 
cognizing this great design, but none establishing in the apostle- 
ship any such authority over the church, as is pretended to be 
derived from them. Christ nowhere gave them any commission 
to rule over the other disciples or to dictate to them what they 
should believe. The humble but most honorable business of 
feedinr/ his sheep and his lambs was all that Peter was authoriz- 
ed to do. 

Again : it is not pretended that ordination confers the gifts 
which fit a man for the ministry or the graces of a Christian even, 
but only the rights. God has nowhere in the Christian church 
established ordinances for the conferring of power without grace. 
Still more, the claim of ordination is one in direct resistance of 
Christ. It claims that ordination confers the powers of office 
upon men whom the Head of the church has not called ; upon bad 
men, nay, the very worst of men. It claims the right to thrust 
upon the Lord, men who reject Him and whom He rejects ; to 
put into the administration of his aflFairs, not his disciples and 



WORDS AND NAMES. 266 

friends, but his enemies ; to appoint shepherds in despite of him, 
who care not for llie tiocks — mere hireUngs. It sets up, in fact, 
a liierarchy, not over the clmrch only, but over the Head of the 
church. This is the legitimate result of the divine right of apos- 
tolic descent, as claimed by virtue of ordination, whether it be 
held by the bishops of Rome, of the English Episcopal Church, 
or the pastors of Presbyteiian or Congregational churches. This 
is the graad spinal error on which all hierarchy is constructed, 
the falsehood preeminently accursed, which has done more to 
ojipress the church of Christ and to prevent the fulfillment of his 
great command to preach the gospel to all jieople, than any other 
falsehood. It is held nevertheless by thousands of pious pastors, 
though much to their own damage, and the damage of the 
churciies. Christ instituted no forms of any sort in ordftiation. 
He was not a man of forms, but of spirit, Mark, in the passage 
I have (|uoted above, says, " he ordained twelve." No laying on 
of hands was mentioned, and evidently none took ^^h^ce. The 
call was the ordination. When the place of Judas was to be fill- 
ed, if ever, there should have been an ordination after the mod- 
ern form. On that occasion, Peter said, " must one be ordained 
to be a witness with us," &c. The proposal pleased the one 
hundred and twenty disciples in the midst of whom Peter was 
standing, and they proceeded to the ordination. This was the 
time in which succession, if it was to exist, should have been 
started carefully, and all its mighty consequences fastened se- 
curely to the apostolic foundation. What under these circum- 
stances did the apostles. What ought they to have done, and 
most carefully recorded, according to modern opinions and mod- 
ern records of ordination ! What they did was as follows. They 
"appointed two, Joseph and Matthias." " They prayed, thou. 
Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these 
two thou hast cluisen, that he may take part of this ministry and 
ajiostleship — and they gave torth their lots ; and the lot fell upon 
Matthias, and he loas mmibered with the eleven apostles." Oh, if 
Luke could have but reached down his hand to the nineteenth 
century, he might have had a thousand pounds put into it. if unlv 
he would have interlined the laying on of hands by the eleven. 
But as the ordination was really by the whole church, and with- 
out the laying on of hands at all, Luke thought best to let it go 
so. The descendants from Matthias are now evidently without 
lineage. The matter was not begun right, and the mistake can- 
not now be corrected. What pastor can say that he does not be- 
long to this broken Hne ? The example set us on this occasion 
should be, and is, followed substantially by Congregational 
churches. Having in their own minds, after prayer and inquiry, 
12 



260. WORDS AND NAMES. 

fixed upon one or more disciples as suited to be their pastor, they 
lay the matter more especially before God in prayer, saying. 
Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show us whom 
,thou hast chosen — and they give forth their lots or votes, and on 
whomsoever the choice falls, he is, if he accepts the election, val- 
idly ordained. If, after this, a ceremony or public induction is 
convenient, there can be no objection to it, but it adds nothing to 
the validity of the transaction. 

Again, Paul claims to be an apostle, but he was never ordain- 
ed, and he makes the number thirteen. When Paul was called 
into the ministry he saw Christ, and so became one of the very 
best witnesses of the resurrection. In his case, as if to throw de- 
signed contempt on this monopoly of ordination, he was sent first 
to a layman — "a certain discij)le at Damascus, named Ananias." 
This layman, " putting his hands on liim, said, Brother Saul, the 
Lord Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the Avay as thou camest, 
hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled 
with the Holt/ Ghost." Paul "received sight forthwith, and arose 
and was baptized," (the baptism being unquestionably adminis- 
tered by this same layman;) "and straightway he preached 
Christ in the synagogues." How exceedingly irregitlar was all 
this, when compared with modern books and opinions ! Paul 
takes special care to tell us that he preached for three years after 
this, before he saw any one of those who were " apostles before 
him," (read Gal. 1st and 3d chaps.) When we look at this sub- 
ject in its true light, how funny and ridiculous do a company of 
bishops appear, clad in silks and ornamented like eastern princes, 
walking forth in grandiloquent procession, announcing themselves 
as the lineal representatives of the twelve apostles ! And how 
preposterous are tlie pretensions of any set of men who claim, 
that by virtue of ordination, they are invested with a monopoly of 
sacred things, so that the Church of Christ cannot enjoy her pri- 
vileges, nor even her existence, without them ! Quo. 



WORDS AND NAMES.— NO. III. 
\From the Boston Recorder, July, 1843.] 

Let me not be misunderstood as rejecting or undervaluing the 
ministers or the deacons, or the covenants and creeds of the 
churches, or the simple forms of ordination as practiced by the 
New England churches. All these are generally expedient, but 
their obligation rests on the basis of expediency ; and when ex- 
pedient, they become matters of duty, and in that sense of divine 



WORDS AND NAMES. 267 

right. But judging of this expediency — the exercise of this divine 
riglit — is intrusted to the people, not tlie ministers alone. It is 
the requirement of the Savior, that in his own Itouse all things 
should be done decently and in order, for the edification and vig- 
orous action of his body ; but by what means this shall be accom- 
plished must be determined by the brotherhood, according to 
the circumstances of each particular one. 

For a church in the midst of other churches, nothing is more 
suitabU; than that in the installation of one of its members as its 
pastor it should call in its neiglibors and fiiends, and that the 
pastors, being accustomed to lead on all public occasions, should 
lead also in this. "While a church has a ])astor, or can conveni- 
ently procure the services of a brother who has been educated 
and set apart for the ministry'-, good order and propriety recpiirc 
that they should do so, and that such an one should lead them 
in their most public devotions, and in the administration of ordi- 
nances. JJut, if the circumstances are reversed ; if a churcli is 
far oft" from other churches, or surrounchsd only by such churches 
as will not sympatliize with her, she is cpiite at liberty, and the 
divine will woulil recjuire her to ordain her own pastor, as was 
done in the case of Matthias. If, too, thus separated and alone, 
without a pastor, her season of communion at the Supper returns, 
or infant children of behevers arrive at the proper age to be 
publicly dedicated, the church is not at liberty to neglect the 
ordinances on this account, but must appoint some one of her 
number to officiate mitil the Lord shall pleases to send her better 
helps. The benefit of the sacraments does not depend upon the 
exterior consecration of the hand which administers them, but 
upon the internal sanctilication of the heart whicli receives them. 
Even the churcluis of Rome and of p]ngland acknowledge all 
this, and direct that baptism shall in extreme cases be adminis- 
tered by a nurse, or any other person at hand, and such baptism 
is allowed to be as eflicacious as that administered by consecrat- 
ed hands. This is making the validity of the administration to 
depend on the circumstances of the case, and so upon expedi- 
ency altogether. 

Episcopacy of all sorts selects a portion of the clergy as supe- 
rior to the rest, and insists that they alone possess the strange 
monopoly of ordination, denouncing Congregational and Presby- 
terian ministers, as no more than unanointed laymen. In this 
they are quite right, and if they would but put themsehes upon 
the same level of universal brotherhood, it would be just where 
the Bible and common sense put them. 

I do not intend to enter extensively into the minute examina- 
tion of texts of Scripture in connection with this subject, for it 



268 WORDS AND NAMES. 

would' extend this article beyond my design. This is not, how- 
ever, because I have not examined the IJible ; for I have read 
the New Testament tln-ough carefully, and noted every passas^c 
wliicli seemed to have a beaiing on the case. My clear convic- 
tion is, that there is not any authority there for the claim, but an 
overvvhelmin<f amount of evidence against it, both in the general 
spirit of Christ's institutions, the particular occurrences which 
are related, and the instructions which are given. It is not pre- 
tended that the Savior ever laid his hands on any one for the 
purpose of ordaining hini to preach, or that he instituted the or- 
der of priests with this power, by any particular declaration. It 
is a matter of deduction, merely. It is said in reply to this most 
remarkable absence in the institution, of a power which is claimed 
Avith such pertinacity, and as so indispensable, tliat the call of 
Christ was enough, so that whoever He called needed no farther 
authority. Certainly it was so in the days of Christ's dwelling 
on earth, and it is ecjually so now. The disciple who is called to 
devote himself to tlie work of the ministry, by the voice of Jesus 
Christ speaking in his providence, cannot be helped by human 
authority, and ought not to be hindered. The great princi})le is 
the same now as Ibrmerly, and woe to that body of men who at- 
tempt to hold back any one whom the Lord has called, or to in- 
terfere in the case beyond the giving of advice. And woe to that 
disciple who being so called to any duty, fails to perform it from 
fear of men. 

Gifts which have been conferred by the laying on of hands, 
are mentioned two or tln-ee times in the New Testament, and the 
texts are constantly resorted to in support of the monopoly of 
the priesthood ; but no one can say Avhat those gifts were, and it 
is not pretended that any gifts are now conferred by ordination. 
If bishops or councils could confer gifts by the laying on of their 
luuuls, tlie cases would be paralUil, and the autliority appro- 
priate ; but since they cannot, it is imj)ossible to feel the force of 
the deduction, by which they would prove themselves to be 
necessary in the case. Let, then, the really ))ious pastors, whose 
desire is to walk in the footstejis of the great Shepherd, abandon 
this silly and groundless conceit. Let Home keep it to herself, 
with the long catalogue of her blasphemous assiunptions of di- 
vine prerogative. 

Discij)leship includes the highest of all prerogatives. Every 
disciple is a brother of Christ, a son of the Lord Almighty, a 
king and priest unto God ; and this, not by doubtful deduction, 
but by explicit allowance and declaration of the Holy Ghost. If 
any desire to distinguish themselves in the " royal priesthood " 



THE CHURCH AND THE PRESP. 269 

of the " sons of God," let tlicni do it according to the direction 
of the Master — by superior service in the church. 

Plainly, the prcachinq; of the gospel is in no more need of 
studying its lineage than any otlier occupation. It Avould be 
really just as correct in fact, and as im{)ortant in prerogative, for 
a portion of the tentmakers or saihnakers of the world to band 
themselves together and claim a monopoly of the business, under 
the pretense of lineal descent from the great apostle to the Gen- 
tiles. The power of the gospel is not dei)endent on such things 
as this. When the veneral)le Lyni;vn IJeecher was a young man, 
leturning on a certain occasion to his native town in Con- 
necticut, he fell into conv(;rsation by the roadside with an old 
neighbor, an Episcopalian, who had been mowing. " Mr. Beech- 
er," said the fanner, " 1 should like to ask you a question. Our 
clergy say that you are not oi-dained, and have no right to 
preach. I should be glad to know what you think about it." 
" Suppose," replied Dr. Beecher, " you had in the neighborhood 
a blacksmith, who said that he could prove that he belonged to 
a regular line of blacksmiths which had come down all the way 
from St. Peter, but he made scythes that would not cut ; and 
you had another blacksmitli, who said he could not see what de- 
scent from Peter had to do with making scythes, so long as they 
were well made, and this man made scythes that would cut. 
Where would you go to get your scythes ?" — " Why to the man 
who made scythes to cut, certainly," replied the farmer. " Well," 
said Dr. Beecher, " that ministry which cuts is the ministrrj 
which Christ has authorized to preach." In a recent conversa- 
tion on the same subject. Dr. Beecher gave his opinion by relat- 
ing this story. Quo. 



THE CIIURCn AND THE PRESS. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, Jluf^ust 10, 1843.] 

TiiK supremacy of the Journal of Commerce over the rest of 
the secular press, in all matters of church polity, has been most 
shockingly encroached upon within the last few weeks. The 
Courier has gone into the njatters of " our church" by whole col- 
unms, setting popery and high church pretensions at utter defi- 
ance, and treating bishops' rol)es as if they were only common 
cloth. We do not comprehend " what has got into the man," that 
he writes so well upon churc^h affairs. Tiie Express has been 
picking up some of our spent shot, and firing them over again at 
Bishop Hughes and the papists, and the editor has involved him- 
self, head and shoulders, in the strife, and the hotter it becomes, 



270 THE pilgrims' FATHERS. 

the better he seems to like it. Now neither of these papers has 
an editor who has ever been ordained to any such service, or ever 
wore even the title of reverend. Who ever thought of saying 
" the Rev. James Watson Webb, Colonel in the regular army," 
or " the Rt. Rev. William B. Townsend, Esq., Bishop of Staten 
Island ?" The Commercial Advertiser we need hardly mention ; 
for it has always been a dabbler in these matters, though it has 
assumed a much more decided and fearless tone of late, declaring 
that it is not boimd at all by the decrees of the Church as to what 
it shall say, or what matters it shall discuss. The American 
treats these things with all the reverence which a man without 
even a cleiical title ought to do. If it says anything beyond what 
the Church has ordained, it takes care to put it in the form of 
great discretion. As to the Post, it minds its politics, as it ought. 
The penny and two-penny papers are all of them, more or less, 
falling into the same disuegard of the lines which separate be- 
tween secular and ecclesiastical affairs. Ten years ago not one of 
these papers would have dared to crack a joke at His Holiness 
the Pope, or any of his vicegerents on this side of the Atlantic, 
or question the propriety of any of their proceedings. We had 
then the field to ourselves ; but we were unable to defend the 
hues. Bishop Hughes broke out of the church, close into the 
bloody field of politics, and compelled all hands to " stand by ;" 
and now Bishop Onderdonk has consummated the confusion, by 
ordaining in the Episcopal Church, a young man who, almost 
every body thinks, ought to have been ordained by Bishop 
Hughes. 



THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, JVovemher 24, 1843.] 

The New England Society, we understand, are planning for 
an anniversary, this year, of unusual interest. The farther we 
float on the stream of time away from the landing of our fathers, 
the more interest is there gathering, all the while, about the recol- 
lection of that event. When we stood the other day before Weir's 
great picture of the embarkation, and remembered that upon that 
deck was gathered the world's best hope for liberty and virtue, 
we felt inexpressible satisfaction in knowing the fact that Pro- 
vidence had sustained that hope, and landed that company in 
America. What if that company had been overwhelmed on the 
passage ; who can say how much our race would have been re- 
tarded in its struggle for emancipation from the crafts of kings 



CHURCH AND STATE. 2T1 

and priests ? The Reformation miglit have been overpowered, 
and thick clouds have been again sliutting out the light. As it 
Avas, the work of emancipation, complete and thorough, was done 
at once. Our ancestors commenced on tiiese shores, not strug- 
gling under masses of oppression and ignoiance, but they beflan 
free. Look at England. How she heaves with desires for lib- 
erty, and how she is fettered and enthralled still, two hundred and 
twenty years after that portion of her people who came over here 
were perfectly free. It will probably require thi-ee centuries 
more, to place Englishmen in England at a point so far advanced 
in tlie Avorld's renovation, as was Plymouth Rock, when our 
fathers first planted their free feet upon it. With one leap they 
cleared themselves of the old woi-ld's rubbish, and began a new 
world. How strange it seems to us, that a great mass of pious 
and intelligent Christians in England should sincerely think an al- 
liance with the State necessary to the support of religion : that 
they should think the kingdom of Christ dependent upon such 
low maneuvers as the appointment of dissipated sons of noble 
families to places, in order that the support of' those families may 
be secured to the Church : that even the noble Scotch, who 
have just abandoned all their church accommodations, and pre- 
ferred the open air with liberty, to costly temples under the op- 
pression of their civil alliances, — that such men, with their great 
leaders, should after all be so in darkness still as to desire an- 
other arrangement with the State ! Yet so slow as all this are 
men to learn the truth, even Avith the example of America before 
their eyes. Even in this country, how many men are still so un- 
enlightened as to doubt the ability of tlie people to manage their 
own affairs ; doubtful in fact whether the Reformation was not on 
the whole a iniifortune, or at least, with IMr. Carey, whether it 
did not go too far ! Such men, we trust, will live to see that the 
Reformation will go considcial)ly farther than it has even now 
gone ; so far, in fact that tlie direction of Jesus Christ, " Call no 
man master on earth," shall be fully obeyed. Let, then, the 
event which })lanted libei'ty in the earth be celebrated. The 
thoughts which gather around Plymouth Rock will always be too 
big for utterance. The most burning elo(jucnce can never bring 
them forth ; the most expansive genius can never fully compre- 
hend them. 



272 PURITANISM AND EPISCOPACY. 

PURITANISM AND EPISCOPACY. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, December 27, 1843] 

The speech of Rev. Dr. Wainright at the Piln;iim dinner, shows 
tliat these two irreat principles stand as widely apart now, as Ihey 
did two hundred years ago. Time has not modified their essen- 
tial ingredients, though time and the enlightenment of the age 
have induced more e.xtcrnul courtesy. Mr. Choate, in his oration, 
said, that in Geneva the exiled Puritans"" found a State without 
a king, and a clun-ch without a bishop." At the dinner Dr. 
Wainwright responded to the toast, " 'i'he clergy of New England." 
In the course of his remarks, he said that in a proper place he 
would undertake to prove that " there could be no church with- 
out a bishop." In another ])art of his remarks he said that al- 
though "an opponent of Puritan principles, he venerated the 
Puritan virtues." This is as near to an agreement as Puritanism 
and prelacy ever have come, or in all probal)ility ever Avill. It 
was from the oppressions of prelacy that the Puritans lied ; the 
at((^m[)t to extend the national church of England to these colo- 
nies, as it w;is extended to Irt'land, was one of the chief, though 
more secret causes of the war of the Revolution, and in that war 
the mass of the Episcopal (dergy and a great propoi'tion of the 
laity took sides with the motlu^r country. In fact, the history of 
the world d(X!s not recoi'd an instance in which ])rela(;y has taken 
the side of liberty. Liberty owes her nothing ; and if no sjiirit 
but hers had been life in England three bundled years ago, this 
mighty republic would have made no part of the world's history, 
and Pilgrims' day would never have been named. The two 
things are eternal, irreconcilable enemies ; and however happily 
the advocates of the two systems may live together in the same 
community as men and neighbors and Christians, it will only be 
by dropping for the time, the peculiar principles whicli constitute 
the two systems. p]piscopacy wiicn it stands forth distinctivx^ly, 
aj)pears in surplice and band and lawn, claiming through apos- 
tolic succession to be tlie solo depository of covenant l)lessings, 
and the exclusive church of Christ, in which it exercises authori- 
tatively its functions, independent of the people and by divine 
right. It sjx^aks of the Bible jus interpreted by the authoiity of 
tht^ falh(!rs, the councils, and the homilies, and it claims the sub- 
mission of all men to its behests, under ])ain of eternal damnation ; 
or at least, of hopes restricted to " uncovenanted" grace. The 
Puritan, in his round hat, and with no attire or aii- of superiority, 
re])lies, God is my father; Christ my bishop; this Bible my in- 
fallible guide. In this Bible I learn that vvhere two or three are 
together in the name of Christ, He will be with them, and thai 



PURITANISM AND EPISCOPACY. 273 

is church and bisliop onoujj^h for me. This Bible is tlic finislied 
revelation of God, and what he has finished, I do not believe men 
can make better. When you tell me that men have made an au- 
thoritative interpretation of God's book, you tell me what is im- 
))i)ssil)le; what I cannot and dare not adopt; for God tells me, 
if I believe Ills word, I shall be saved ; and if I do not, I shall 
be damned. I must see to this great matter for myself. Your 
apostolic succession I covet not, for I have one infinitely better, 
.1 am a bi-other of Chiist, a son of God, a king and a priest, my- 
self, by commission from the Almighty; and of what avail can 
succession from the apostles be to me ? Whatever you propose 
to me, which is in accordance with the Bible, [ shall be ready to 
comply with, at your suggestion and advice; but your commands 
.1 disclaim ; and when they reejuire me to disobey God, whatever 
may be the consequences, I dare not comply. 

The two systems need to be delineated no farther, to show that 
they are never to be reconciled. Without saying which of these 
systems is right, any one may sec that they contradict each other 
throughout ; and without finding fault that an invitation to the 
Pilgrim dinner was extended to so respectable a New Englander 
as tlie Rev. Dr. Wainwright, or accepted by liim, we must take 
the liberty to say that when prelacy holds a celebration, it can- 
not exhibit the good taste of unity for Puritans to take any promi- 
nent part in it ; and the same dilliculty exists when the case is 
reversed. That an Episco[)al clergyman, especially, should re- 
spond to a toast in honor of the " clergy of New England," when 
everybody knows that in his estimation there arc no clergymen 
there, except the very few who have been Episcopally ordained, 
and that there are no churches in New England except such as 
have Episcopal Bishops set over them, is carrying out Yankcic 
fraternity in just the way to break it up altogether. An old 
Federalist might as w(!ll be madi; the sponsor of a toast in honor 
of Thomas Jefferson at a Democratic mass meeting, or a Democrat 
echo the memory of Alexander Hamilton in a log cabin. It is 
in better taste and better friendship that each party should go by 
itself, and rejoice in the success of whatever stimulates its exult- 
ation ; for the Puritan's hat will be very likely to be trampled on 
at the Episcopal convention, and the Bishop's lawn to be torn at 
tlie puritanic conventicles. 

It may be a matter of some interest to state, that the historic 
fact which Mr. Choate mentioned, he thought no more of than 
anything else he was saying, and was thrown into great wonder 
as to what it could be which liad produced such thunders of ap- 
plause, lie incjuired with earnestness afterwards, what it was 
which produced the commotion. The same thing might have been 
12* 



274 PRINCIPLES OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 

said in Boston without producing the least excitement, or imposing 
on any Episcopahan the necessity of taking the least notice of it. 
But recent events have created the state of feeling in New York 
which so exploded in the Tabernacle. 



PUNCHARD ON CONGREGATIONALISM. 
\_Froj}i the Journal of Commerce, Jan. 4, 1844.] 

PuNC hard's view of the principles and doctrines of Congre- 
gationalism, of its practice and its advantages, together with a 
summary of the testimony in its favor, offered by Ecclesiastical 
History, is a learned and elaborate treatise, calculated to enlighten 
the public mind, and to promote the extension of a system of 
church government "recommended by the purity of its princi- 
ples, the clearness of its doctrines, the simplicity of its rules, 
and the consonance of its spirit with the meek breathings of the 
gospel." 

Congregationalism, in common with other Protestant systems, 
takes the Bible as its only infallible guide ; but it has certain es- 
sential principles, distinctive and peculiar to itself. It is an or- 
ganization of the largest liberty, investing its members with power 
to choose their own officers, and to administer their own affairs. 
By giving the power of discipline to those most interested in 
maintaining the purity of the church, it establishes a security the 
most effectual for preserving that purity, while at the same time 
it guards against the abuse of a power so likely to be perverted, 
under the influence of prejudice or passion, by an individual, or a 
particular class recognizing an interest common only to its own 
order. By establishing the independency of each of its churches, 
it secures to each its riglits and privileges. 

As Congregationalism regards the Scriptures as the only infal- 
lible guide in matters of church order and discipline, it seeks in 
them to ascertain what is essential to the character of a Christian 
church ; believing that the principles of church order and disci- 
pline are essentially the same in all ages of the world — in these lat- 
ter days as in the days of the apostles. 

From the express injunctions and instructions of Scripture, 
and from the authorized example of the apostolic churches, 
equally authoritative with express commands, it infers the truth, 
that — 

" A visible Christian church is a voluntary association of pro- 
fessed Christians, united together by a covenant for the worship 
of God and the celebration of religious ordinances." 

It is also a principle of Congregationalism, deduced from the 



PRINCIPLES OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 275 

same authority, that a cluirch should ordinarily consist of only 
so many members as can conveniently assemble together for 
public Avorship, the celebration of religious ordinances, and the 
transaction of church business. The Greek word commonly 
translated church in the New Testament, is used indiscriminately 
to designate either the whole body of Christians, or a single con- 
gregation of professed believers, united together for religious 
purposes. It is used in the latter sense in more than sixty dif- 
ferent instances. If " the church at Jerusalem," " the church at 
Antioch," " the church at Corinth," " the church at Ephesus," 
&c., had not been regarded by the sacred writers as constituting 
each an entire and complete church, hoAV easy it would have been 
to speak of them respectively, as that portion of the church of 
Christ residing at one place or the other. Such being the cha- 
racter of the apostolic churches, the Congregationalists infcn- that 
such should be the characttir of all Christian churches, in all 
countries and in all periods of time. 

We have already slatted that Congregationalism vests all church, 
power in the hands of tliose who constitute the church. 

These are the great principles which constitute the rock where- 
on rests the fair fabric of the system. Its adherents refer to 
Jesus Christ as the author of their church polity, and from the 
Scriptures themselves derive their piinciples and doctrines. But 
the testimony of many of the most ancient fathers, as well as 
the judgment of many learned and impartial modern writers on 
ecclesiastical history, attests the correctness of their interpretation 
of the Scriptures. The work before us contains copious extracts 
from the writings of Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, and others, 
ancient and modern, conclusive to this purport. 

No churches can shoAv a purer or more blameless practice than 
those organized on the principles of Congregationalism. The sys- 
tem combines energy and (efficiency with order and regularity, 
and is eminently adapted to effect the great purpose of church 
organization. 

Among the advantages jieculiar to Congregationalism, besides 
its conformity to the polity of the apostolical churches, not the 
least is its encouragement of self-government, beyond any other 
system. The Puritans, when at Leyden, professed democratical 
sentiments in relation to civil government, and before landing upon 
the rock of Plymouth, they adopted a brief but comprehensive 
constitution, containing, says Pitkin, the elements of those forms 
of government peculiar to the new world. 

Previously to the American Revolution, Mr. Jefferson declared 
church government on Congregational principles to be the only 
form of pure democracy that then existed in the world, and the 



276 RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH. 

best plan of government for the American colonies. To Congre- 
gationalism we doubtless owe the free and happy structure of our 
political institutions ; for wherein they are not directly imitated 
from that excellent model, they were framed by tlK)se whose 
minds were deeply imbued with the spirit and liberality of its 
principles. If Congregationalism does not unavoidably lead to 
the establishment of a democracy, it certainly favors that form of 
government. 

It also promotes general intelligence beyond any other form of 
church government. In illustration of this, let the population of 
New England be compared with tliat of other lands where a dif- 
ferent polity prevails. Congregationalism is the oftspring of in- 
telligence, and demands more of it in the mass of the church 
than any other system. 

The very able and interesting work of Avhich we have briefly 
recapitulated a few of the arguments, has been published in one 
duodecimo volume, by Allen, Morrill and Wardwell, of Andover ; 
and Mark H. Newman, of this city. 



RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH. 
\_From the Journal of Commerce, January 10, 1844.] 

The Rev. Dr. Cunningham preached in the Tabernacle on Sab- 
bath evening, to a very large audience. The primary object of 
the sermon was to prove that Jesus Christ had established a 
kingdom on earth, and as to all matters of ecclesiastical polity 
was the ruler in that kingdom, and had given it a code of laws 
which its members were bound to obey ; that these laws required 
the church to control within itself, the whole matter of its wor- 
ship and the appointment of its officers ; and that with the privi- 
leircs of Christ's kincjdom so constituted, no civil magistrate had 
any authority to interfere. 

This is not an uncommon mode of arguing the subject ; yet it 
seems to us quite defective and erroneous. Before the Free 
Church of Scotland shall establish real liberty, and accomplish 
the will of God completely, it must, we are persuaded, take dif- 
ferent ground from this. 

The proposition of Dr. Cunningham is, in the first place, un- 
tnie. Christ has not established any chui'ch to be recognized 
and dealt with as a kingdom, or an organization at all. His 
kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, having its existence in the hearts 
of men, and over his church as a great spiritual community He 
reigns, and for it has made laws ; but a kingdom of this world, 
He established none, not even in the name of a church or a kirk, 



RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH. 277 

with a Papa or a General Assembly as His Vicegerent, posses- 
sing power to negotiate with the State, or set bounds to civil 
authority. 

Besides, the theory of Dr. Cunningham would be inapplicable, 
if true. Suppose the Savior had established a code of laws for 
his church when it should exhibit itself visibly before men ; the 
Scotch Kirk is not that church. On the contrary, recent events 
have proved that the old kirk is a body inimical to the true 
spirit of Clirist, and persecuting it by various measures which it 
certainly would not adopt if its governing members had them- 
selves that spirit ; and the possession of that spirit is the only 
test left us of citizenship in the kingdom. Dr. Cunningham felt 
this difficulty ; for he said, as we understood him, that the ex- 
emption from civil obligations extended to any association j^rofes- 
sing to be a church of Christ. But if Christ as King in Zion 
established a code of laws for his kingdom, it must have been for 
his real kingdom, his true subjects ; and certainly Satan cannot 
get up a church of his ow^n, and claim immunities for it under 
the disj)ensation of the true church. 

Another difficulty with the position of Dr. Cunningham is, 
that while it protects the true church from the oppression of 
civil tyrants, it leaves them altogether at the mercy of ecclesias- 
tical tyrants, and these are commonly much worse than the 
others. Under the pretense of authority from Christ, they do, 
in many cases, most cruelly oppress and destroy his true disci- 
ples ; in truth, nothing has been so much the object of the 
hot hatred of ecclesiastical rulers, as the men who have most 
thoroughly copied the spirit and most implicitly obeyed the laws 
of tlieir Spiritual King. 

The truth about the matter is, that the right to hold opinions 
upon religious subjects and all other subjects, and to act under 
the influence of those opinions, whether they bring men to wor- 
ship God or to refuse to worship Him, is not derived from any 
associated condition, but is an individual right, pertaining to 
every man as he came from the hand of his Maker, entrusted 
with faculties, surrounded by inlluences, and pressed with obli- 
gations. Every man in his own title has the right to think for 
himself, to associate with others, and to select teachers and helps 
of every sort to carry out his opinions, without the interference 
compulsorily of any man or body of men, whether they be kings 
or prelates, parliaments or presbyters. This principle sets men 
truly free. It disenthralls and makes them men. It is by this 
right, that the kingdom of Christ is protected, and according to 
this principle it is constructed. It exempts men alike from civil 
and ecclesiastical tyranny, and prescribes the limits of jurisdiction 



278 CHURCHES AN"© POLITICS. 

to governments of both sorts. A council, a bishop, a presby- 
tery, or a consociation, has upon this principle no more right to 
dictate what men shall believe, or who shall be their religious 
teachers, than a king or a president. It secures the same rights 
to infidels and Christians, to papists and protestants, to church- 
men and quakers, to those who are in the church and those who 
are out of it. "When the principle is thoroughly learned, the 
Reformation will so far be perfected ; the Free Church of Scot- 
land will be truly free, and the process of bringing men really 
and truly into the kingdom of Christ, will be likely to go on 
much more rapidly than it has done since this principle became 
obscured and was ultimately lost in the first centuries of the 
Chi'istian era. 

We make these remarks with great respect towaras the gen- 
tleman whose discourse has been the immediate occasion of 
them, and in the hope that they may possibly help the noble 
Free Church of Scotland so to start in her new enterprise, that 
another separation for conscience' sake may not be necessary in 
some future century, when the rights of individual men shall be 
more fully comprehended. We hope also that truths so plain 
may soon be more fully recognized in free America. " The spi- 
rit of the age " does powerfully tend that way. 



CHURCHES AND POLITICS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, June 11, 1844.] 

The ecclesiastical convention of the Methodist denomination 
seem to be bringing their political discussions to a crisis. The 
result will probably be a separation. The break is to be at 
Mason and Dixon's line, — a weaker spot than is to be found 
elsewhere, and so often bent that there is perhaps some anger 
that the political ligaments may one day separate. How- 
ever, political unions would seem to be stronger than ecclesias- 
tical unions, so that while the latter break, the former may 
hope still to hold out. It seems to us that if the professed 
disciples of Christ understood, as well as they might, the single 
subject which so moved his compassion, they would hardly spend 
their time in forming national churches at all, much less in those 
wranglings which break them in pieces after they are constructed. 
Christ said nothing about slavery, though he condemned oppres- 
sion, and propounded principles which are sure, when thoroughly 
adopted, we think, to put an end to the system the world over. 
But there was another slavery so incomparably worse, to which the 



A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 279 

whole family of man had voluntarily surrendered up themselves, 
that He seems hardly to have noticed political bondage. His 
immediate disciples, full of the same spirit, went every where 
preaching that men should repent. Preachers no\v-a-days do the 
same, and when the harvest of their converts is gathered into a 
company, it is an Anti-Slavery Society. It is a Church of Christ, 
alias, an Anti-Slavery Society, a Temperance Society, and in ge- 
neral, a society of all work. In religious matters it is conscience 
Avhich prompts men ort ; in war it is honor. But from the 
manner in which the pi'ompter operates, there is reason to sus- 
pect that the animating spiiit is often identical in both cases and 
not exactly either of the principles whose name it takes. 

If men would carry on moral reforms or political revolutions, let 
them do so, and create their associations as they please ; but when 
they form a church of Christ, let it be an association of His disci- 
ples — nothing more, and nothing less. If these disciples differ in 
opinion about the best man for the Presidency of the United 
States, let them push their differences as hard as they please, but 
not on the church. If they want to abolish slavery or intemper- 
ance, and if they believe total abstinence the proper remedy, let 
them urge it as they think proper ; but so long as it is possible 
for a man to own slaves, or to drink wine, or belong to a masonic 
lodge, and still be a Christian, these things cannot, except upon 
plans altogether schismatic, be made tests in the church. It is 
the spirit of the world, and not the spirit of Christ, which makes 
them so. The exclamation of Robert Hall, " he who is good 
enough for Christ, is good enough for me," is the only principle 
of common sense, as it is of sound Christianity. Until Christians 
adopt this principle, they can never have peaceful churches, and 
their quarrels will be ever deranging the better management of 
politicians. 



A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 

New York, December, 1844. 
To the Editors of the JVcw England Puritan : 

Gentlemeiv : In your paper of November 8th, 1844, are published 
the procecdinjis of tlie " Mnnhattan Congregational Union." That our 
brethren in New England may have a correct understanding of tho 
■whole matter, you are respectfully requested by the delegates from the 
Tabernacle, to publish the enclosed documeut, exhibiting the arguments 
and decision of that Church in regard to the Union. Your readers by 
referring to the Puritan, will notice that the quotations from the Con- 
stitution do not agree with the instrument as sent to you. This is ex- 
plained by the fact, that the Union when it came together, changed the 



280 A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 

phraseology from what it was when submitted to the Churches, though 
Ldo not perceive that the meaning is essentially altered. 
Yours truly, 

One of the Delegates. 

To the Rev. 0. S. St. John, Scribe of Convention, c&c. : 

By a vote of the Convention which met at the Broadway Tab- 
ernacle and formed the Constitution of a Congregational Union, 
it was made the duty of the delegates to submit that Constitution 
to their respective churches, and to notify the Scribe of Conven- 
tion of the result. 

The undersigned delegates from the Broadway Tabernacle 
Church have now to report, that the Constitution was by them 
submitted to the Church and received the earnest attention which 
its importance demanded. The clause defining the powers of 
the proposed Union, received especial attention. That clause 
reads as follows : — 

Art. 2. This body shall be strictly advisory in its character, profes- 
sing no powers of government either legislative or administrative ; nor 
exercising any appellate jurisdiction over the churches ; it shall be only 
a council where the learned, the wise, and tlie good of our churches 
may consult together respecting all matters pertaining to the welfare 
of the churches which may demand their attention ; and its decisions 
shall, in all cases, possess no more binding authority than their truth- 
ful character, and the weight of combined wisdom and piety in the 
body, can give them. 

The discussion drew together a very full attendance of the 
members of the church, and was continued by adjournment for 
three evenings. 

In favor of the plan, it was urged that union is a fundamental 
principle of Christianity, exhibited by it at all times, and that 
Congregationalism falls in with and encourages this disposition ; 
that the churches all over New England are organized upon 
some plan of association and that the proposed Union was, there- 
fore, in accordance with the usages with which our church more 
particularly sympathized ; that in Connecticut and Rhode Island 
the union was through the agency of Consociations, which are 
generally authoritative bodies empowered to determine and make 
final issue of the matters brought before them ; that in Maine 
the union is by Conferences possessing no authority but that of 
opinion ; and that in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont, the churches have associations under various names, but 
in their general bearing like the Conferences of Maine. The 
Constitution under consideration, it was urged, belonged not to 
the order of Consociation but of Conference ; that it was there- 
fore in conformity with the institutions of the most jealous Con- 



A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 281 

gregationalists, and that tlie body proposed to be created by it, 
])ossessing no authority, could not be injurious in its operation, 
and ought not to be treated with distrust ; that in fact without 
any possibihty of mischief, it would do great good by strength- 
ening the chvu-ches, which wei-e in general feeble and surrounded 
by neighbors not sympathizing with their polity, and so greatly 
in need of some bond of union to which they might look as a 
center of affection, sympathy and support ; that the proposal 
had grown out of the wants and expressed desires of the 
churches, some of whom felt the necessity so much that they 
would be likely to ally themselves to the neighboring Presbyte- 
lies unless some plan of tliis sort should be adopted. Various 
instances of the good eftect of united action were adduced in 
confirmation of these views. 

On the other hand it was argued, that the Tabernacle Church 
had enjoyed great union and pi-osperity in its present position, 
and so far as its own interests had weight, ought to scrutinize, 
Avith great care, any proposition for a material change ; that it 
was a mistake to suppose that organizations like this pervaded 
New England generally ; that in fact tlirough Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, and Vermont there were, beyond the Associa- 
tions of the ministers, very few organizations of any sort, and 
that those which did exist were only arrangements for relir/iotis 
meetings by the assembling together of neighboring churches ; 
and that the Conferences of Maine were iniended. to go no far- 
ther ; and by their rules were forbidden from exercising any such 
general supervision " respecting all matters pertaining to the wel- 
fare of the churches which may demand their attention" as was 
to be the special business of the proposed Union ; that, in fact, 
the Constitution under consideration was unlike anything to bo 
found elsewhere amonfj Cono-rerfationalists, being neither a court 
with authority, nor a religious meeting, but a sort of diocesan 
" busybody about other men's matters," with no bounds to its 
interference, and so, in some respects, more objectionable than a 
body possessing defined authoritij ; that such an organization 
was unscriptural, no record of any such thing being found in the 
Acts of the Apostles or anywhere else in the New Testament, 
the union of the primitive churches being that of the heart, and 
of ready cooperation upon emergencies, but without any perma- 
nently organized body of any sort ; that under this arrangement, 
the Christians just converted from heathenism enjoyed a " lib- 
erty and union " which made them more efficient than the 
churches have ever been since ; that it was in departing from 
this union of hearts, and attempting to strengthen themselves by 
arrangements like the one proposed, that the organized unity be- 



282 A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 

gan of that great hierarchy which carried the churches back, in 
a mass, to idolatry ; that with that example before modern 
Christians, we should be inexcusable were we to take one step in 
the same road ; that the primitive independence of the churches 
was the palladium of their liberty, their union, their purity of 
doctrine, and their efficient evangelical action. 

It was further urged that the proposed Union was wrong, in- 
asmuch as it virtually placed the advisory supervision of the 
churches in the hands of a class of the brethren, in contradiction 
to the primitive example, when the " whole church," including 
all classes, was the only body appealed to, and that the depar- 
tures from the primitive plan had proved exceedingly injurious ; 
that the benefits of formal union, if there Avere such, could be 
better attained by an organization of pastors and brethren in a 
voluntary and distinct society, not involving the authority or the 
organization of the churches, and so requiring no Church action, 
and exciting no discontent or jealousy ; that the events now 
transpiring in other denominations proved that supervisory 
church organizations were but organizations of discord, which, 
when extended to a national character, presented the clergy and 
laity in great councils of acrimonious controversy, dishonorable to 
religion, agitating to the churches, and in every way productive 
of mischiefs which were poorly compensated by the benefits sup- 
posed to be secured ; that this projiosed union must, hke the or- 
ganizations alluded to, be inevitably a center for agitating the 
topics of the day, and would almost of necessity, involve us in 
the great calamity of being compelled to attend to and partici- 
pate in those controversies ; that now, we could measure the ex- 
tent of our difficulties, and provide for them, but so associated, 
could never know when a subject was finished ; that even the 
Conferences of Maine were looked upon with a watchful jealousy 
which was undesirable : that the Consociations of Connecticut 
had been matter of controversy from the beginning, the eflfects of 
which were visible in the great variety of powers which tliey 
possessed, being, in fact, in each case, so much as the friends of 
ecclesiastical government had been able to acquire, in spite of its 
opponents ; that the existence of such bodies caused the non- 
assenting churches to be objects of unkind suspicion, so breaking 
up real union ; that upon the whole, the proposed union was un- 
scriptural, uncongregational, unnecessary and dangerous, and 
finally, in direct contravention of the proper design of churclies, 
and of our own fundamental rule defining that design, Avhicli is 
as follows : " The design of a Christian church we understand to 
be the enjoyment of Christian ordinances, and the maintenance 
of the worship of God." This fundamental rule, it was said, had 



A CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 283 

been thoroughly discussed and agreed upon at the organization 
of the churcii, and Avas intended to be construed strictly, and to 
preclude everything but the two designs specified ; that this, be- 
ing another design, was therefore precluded. Instances were 
adduced of the great injury which particular churches had suf- 
fered from being associated with bodies having the right to ad- 
vise them. 

In the course of the discussion, letters were read from many 
distinguished individuals, both of the clergy and laity of New 
England, stating facts and opinions, bearing upon the case, and 
also extensive quotations from Punchard, Coleman, Bacon, Chee- 
ver, and other writers, who had elucidated the principles in- 
volved in the debate. 

The discussion was terminated by the introduction of the fol- 
lowing resolution, by a brother who had taken no active pait in 
the debate, and being assented to by those, on both sides, who 
had been active, passed with great unanimity, as follows,. to wit : 

" Whereas the subject of forming a Congregational Union has been 
presented to this Church — and whereas there exists amongst us a diver- 
sity of opinion as to the utility of such a measure — therefore, 

" Resolved, That without expressing any opinion as to the merits or 
demerits of the proposed organization, we deem it inexpedient at present 
to take any action in relation thereto." 

We have thought it important to give this synopsis to the 
Convention, and the churches which they represent, that our sis- 
ter churches may not attribute the result to any want of affec- 
tionate regard, or desire of gospel union with them, but may 
know the reasons, truly, which have controlled us. Throughout 
the discussion, the most affectionate regard was expressed to- 
wards all the churches, and we are happy to acknowledge our- 
selves already in a union with them, which imposes on us the 
responsibility of rendering to them a frank and full account of 
what we have done. We are happy to assure our brethren that 
the members of the Tabernacle Church feel committed as sharers 
with them of their sorrows and their joys, and are ready to co- 
operate with them for the promotion of the common good, and 
the glory of our common Lord. 

Wishing to the Convention and to all our brethren, grace, 

mercy, and peace, in the liberty and efficiency of apostolic 

order, we subscribe ourselves their servants in the bonds of 

Clirist. 

David Hale, 1 t^ 7 . j-^i 

A ,,T Ueleqates of the 

Albeut Woodruff, \ „ ^ , ■' rr 1. 

bAMUEL Pitts, | 7 wi j. 

T TT ernade (Jhurch. 

Joseph Harris, J 



284 RELIGION AND SECTARIANISM. 

RELIGION AND SECTARIANISM. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, January 14, 1845.] 

It is generally true tliat when religion is low, sectarianism is 
high, — and when religion is high, sectarianism is low. If we see 
a man full of denunciation against his fellow Christians of other 
denominations, he generally has but little piety himself. To be 
sure a good man will think it his duty to denounce immorality, 
and the more if it is covered up under the cloak of religion. But 
sectarianism is in general not a matter of virtue against vice, nor 
of fundamental truth against fundamental error, but it finds its 
importance in external forms, or in minor matters of belief. It 
belongs often not so much to matters of faith, of personal piety 
or practice, as to church government, or the way of management. 
Nine-tenths of the quarrels among professing Christians are about 
wood, hay, and stubble, — things which on both sides Avill be alto- 
gether burned up and cast away at the last. The preaching of 
Christ, and the men who learned of him, was seldom denunciatory. 
Now and then there came forth a portentous "Wo unto you. 
Scribes and Pliarisees, hypocrites ;" but more frequently the strain 
Avas, " Oh! Jerusalem, Jerusalem." The truth has been spread 
in the same spirit so far as it has been spread at all. Denunci- 
ation and excommunication have done but little, except when ap- 
plied to open vice, for the preservation of purity or faith. In 
fact, three-fourths of the excommunications which have taken 
jilace in the name of Christianity, have been the anathemas of 
error and vice against truth and virtue. Pride has excommu- 
nicated humility ; liypocrisy, sincerity ; and selfish tyranny, hum- 
ble benevolence. Almost always the men who have exhibited 
most of the spirit of the founder of Christianity, have been the 
objects of persecution and scorn, and certainly none with this spirit 
were ever persecutors. The common people are seldom violent 
sectarians, unless excited to it by their leaders ; and the leadei-s, 
it is to be feared, are more fre(|uently violent in their demmci- 
ations for the sake of the emoluments or authority of office, than 
from regard to the honor of Christianity. Real piety is in the 
way of such motives. There is no money to be made, no great 
authority to be exercised by it. To go about doing good, and to 
call every man a brother, is its delight. This spirit thwarts the 
plans and condemns the practices of aspirants, both in state and 
church. Christianity is a great levcler. It begins with the 
broad equality of men, and puM upon each man such great im- 
portance that office loses its consequence and its power. A bad 
man, however high in office or wealth, is, by the measure of Christ- 
ianity, put far beneath the poorest disciple in the estimate of both 



ECCLESIASTICAL REGULATION. 285 

God and man. It is not strange, therefore, tliat the proud, tlio 
ambitious, the bad of every name, should liatc and seek to de- 
strt)y the persons wlio, l)y merely imitating the example of their 
Master, bring discredit on bad great men. Excommunication is 
therefore brou<i;ht in to s^et rid of them, and so industriously is 

O O ... .1 

the knife applied, that the sound fruit is sometimes cut away untu 
little remains except a rotten core. 



ECCLESIASTICAL REGULATION. 
\_Fn)»i the Journal of Cummcrrc, March 1 1, 184G.] 

Dr. Woons, of Andover Theological Seminary, as chairman of 
a committ(H', has published a long report and a plan for system- 
atizing (Jongregatioualism in Massachusetts, so that it may act as 
a denomination like other sects. Strange that a man of the e.x- 
j)erience and wisdom of Dr. Woods, should not have learned that 
regulation has always been the curse of rciligion. The discij)les 
of Clii'ist were never so free from regulation as in the times of 
the apostles, and never were so mighty in their efforts. Then 
every believer was a fully authorized piiest, and all the regulation 
prescribed to them was, that in their meetings they should speak 
one at a time. Regulation afterwards overthrew the work which 
liberty had accomplished, and carried Christendom back to idolatry. 
Jn Luther's Jleformaticjn it was truth untrammeled by regula- 
tion, which did the work. Every man was a preacher again in 
those times, and mighty things were done. So, Wickliil'e, long 
before, unembarrassed by regulation, and witlnjut the help of 
printing, circulated the ]5il)le and ITible truth in England, until the 
ground heaved beneath the hierarcliy, ;ind the nation came near a 
revolution. It is liberty, individual free action — that is mighty, 
Ucgulation is wanted in military warfare, but not in that wiiich is 
inlell(!ctual or moral. " Every man on his own hook," is the dis- 
cipline of ellicii-ncy in spreading trutii, and it is the discipline 
which l)rings about tlie best ordisr also. But no sooner has indi- 
vidual libeity brought truth into power, than the Uev. Doctors 
bring out tiieir curb-bits and halters and breech-bands, to stay 
the resistless steed and " regulate" his speed. But for this regu- 
lation the world would long ago have been a Christian world. 
Jlrgulation has killed everything. It has been Satan's great 
engine, b(jth in politics and religion, for the debasement of man- 
kind. 

How can a man who loves the peaceful churches of New Eng- 



286 ECCLESIASTICAL REGULATION. 

land desire to form them, and Congregationalists everywhere, into 
a national denomination ? Now those churches, next to families, 
are the happiest associations on earth. Tliey are united for mu- 
tual improvement, and the benefit of the people around them. 
They have no troubles but such as originate in their own little 
circle, and these are settled generally within the same circle. If 
they were regulated into a national denomination, they would, like 
all other national denominations, be agitated by some great bug- 
bear which is brought upon the national stage. The Abolitionists 
have broken the national churches of the Baptists and Methodists 
in twain ; the Presbyterians have broken by their own weight ; 
and if we may judge by appearances, the Episcopal church is in 
some danger of a similar result. The two Presbyterian schools 
have yet a North and South question on hand, and if the Aboli- 
tionists could really contrive to break all these national arrange- 
ments into a thousand pieces, in our humble judgment it Avould 
be one of the greatest blessings that could befall religion or its 
professors in the various denominations. 

" Why may Ave not," says Dr. Woods, " have a Congregational 
Union in this countrj^, as they have in England, Scotland and 
Wales." It oujjht to be understood that the Concfrecjationalists 
of Britain have been one of the most thoroughly united and effi- 
cient bodies in the Avorld. They have prospered and increased 
abundantly, until they number some twenty-five hundred churches, 
each one a perfect body in itself, and yet united by unity of sen- 
timent and feeling with all the rest, until this poor plan of regula- 
tion, or in other words hierarchical union, was taken up by some 
of the pastors, and it has been a source of discord ever since. 
Two-thirds of the cliurches perliaps are in the Union, and one- 
third out ; so making two sects, and very essentially interrupting 
their harmony and efficiency. Christians may Avell cry every- 
Avhere, " Oh that the pastors would teach us, and as to all the 
rest, let us alone." " Let us alone — let us alone" — Avas the Avise 
answer of the French merchants Avhen Bonapaite asked what he 
could do for them. So, many Christians Avill say to all these 
plans of regulation. Truth is mighty Avhen joined with liberty, 
but its effective power is diminished just as its liberty is taken 
away. Congregationalism has too much regulation in New Eng- 
land already. New England Avas by the pious Puritans laid out 
in towns and parishes, Avith local boundaries established by law. 
The parishes Avere designed as the boundaries of religious societies. 
Tlie Congregational pastors have by a code of etiquette similar to 
that which governs physicians, made each pastor an absolute 
bishop in his own little diocese, so far that no other bishop of the 
same denomination can officiate therein but by invitation of the 



ECCLESIASTICAI^ REGULATION. 287 

resident. In Connecticut a mongrel hierarchy or regulator called 
Consociation has been established, by whicli the pastors of a 
county combine to control ecclesiastical affairs within tlie county. 
These are both arrangements of the pastors to " regulate" tlie 
churclies, and although well meant, are extremely unwise and 
injurious, and under their influence more discontent is engendered, 
and more i-ival sects introduced, than in any other way. If the 
Congregationalists of New England would prosper in the highest 
degree, they must not add more regulation, but, if possible, dis- 
enthrall themselves from what they now have. 

Speaking of union among Christians and about ecclesiastical 
affairs, we will just say that it does not seem to us that the great 
Doctors have as yet, to any considerable extent, caught the i-ight 
plan to bring it about. World's Conventions will not do it; 
Councils out West will not bring it about. One grand defect of 
these councils and conventions is, that they are always sectarian 
in their very plan; and so antagonistical, instead of congenial. 
They do not embrace the entire church of Christ scattered through 
the rubbish of multiplied denominations. Then there is this grand 
trouble in the case. It is an attempt to create harmony by the 
adoption of a certain creed ; whereas the harmony must be pre- 
existent, having its residence in the understanding and feelings of 
men. It cannot be created by resolutions and proclamations. 
For the present there is an insuperable obstacle in the way of 
Christian union. Men and good men have no correct notion of 
that great thing toleration. Toleration must be the corner-stone 
of union. Before men can form a sound union, they must agree 
to differ, and agree that each one has a right to his peculiar opin- 
ions. Toleration is not yet established — no, not among Protest- 
ants, by a great deal. That great doctrine of liberty so much 
vaunted, that every man has a right to reason and believe for 
himself, and worship according to the dictates of his own con- 
science, however much it may be lauded in public, is very little 
cherished in the breasts of men. The world is not ripe for union 
yet, and something besides councils is necessary to ripen it. The 
sun of truth must shine upon the Christian v/oi-ld for some time 
yet to come, before it will be ready for union. Men's minds 
must be ennobled and expanded, and made genei-ous, not to the 
abandonment of truth, but to the holding of it in love. The 
process is an intellectual one. He who brings out a single truth 
so as to command universal consent, has done more to create 
union than all the councils that were ever held. The intercourse 
and good feeling of councils may help on union, but their procla- 
mations and creeds not at all. In truth, the conclusions of coun- 
cils are seldom exactly true, for they are compromises, taking their 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 



scat betweon many stools, and so not exactly on any one. Indi- 
vidual belief is more often exactly right. In fact, there is a pro- 
mise of guidance and help to individuals, but none at ail to 
councils. 



CONG llEO ATION A LISM. 
IFroin the Journal of Commerce, Auf^u^t 28, 1846.] 

Passing events indicate that the polity of this denomination, 
which claims to be tiie fre';st in the world, must come under the 
common discussion, and answer with others to the charge of up- 
holding a hierarchy. The theory of Congregationalism is, as wc 
understand it, that every local church is complete in itself, with 
full power, without the assistance or assent of others, to jierftict 
its organization and carry on its operations ; that it can invite, in- 
stall, and dismiss its ollicers, and that the onicers ai-e equally 
free to accept, continue, and resign, according to their own 
pleasure, and that every member is equally free to choose his own 
field of usefulness, responsible to the association only for a gene- 
ral deportment becoming a Christian profession, and the per- 
formance of such labors as he \oluntarily engages to undertake. 
That compulsion which requires a man to submit to the control of 
others, especi;jll3^ which compels a parish to accept, keep, listen 
to, or support, a pastor whom they do not approve, or compels a 
pastor to settle with or remain with a parish, when he thinks he 
should be more useful or more happy elsewhere, the theory of 
Congregationalism rejects. The Pilgrims thought that religious 
liberty involved not only the right to think and speak, but the 
right to choose teachers and leaders in worship. They did not 
understand how a congregation could worship according to the 
dictates of their conscience, when obliged to listen to insti'uctions 
which they deemed heretical, or to worship in any way which 
contradicted their conscience. Notwithstanding these thoroughly 
radical ])rinciples of independency, it has l)een the custom of 
Congregationalists to call councils at the settlement and dismis- 
sion of ministers, and on other occasions, with the oft-repeated 
declaration, however, that these councils were only advisory in 
their decisions, and their public performances only suitable cere- 
monies, and not of any necessity or binding obligation. It was 
on such grounds that the polity of Congregationahsm came some 
_vears ago, and under peculiar circumstances, before the courts of 
Massachusetts. Ministers, whom their parishes had resolved no 
longer to employ, continued to tender their services, and then 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 289 

lirouflit Kuits for thoir salaries. The supreme court of that 
(State declared, that as it was a custom to settle and dismiss min- 
isters by councils, and as the contract was indefinite as to time, a 
minister who had been settled by a council could not be other- 
wise dismissed ; for that, by custom, this had become lata. 
When a minister had been dismissed by his parish, and had de- 
clared that he would not consent to a mutual council, and the 
parish had tlx-reupon called an ex-'parte council which d-etermined 
that lie ought to bo and was dismissed, the court held that he 
was not, because it was not demanded of him at the time that he 
should unite in the council. The society tlien called another 
council, as the court Iiad ordered, demanding of the minister to 
unite in it, which lie refused ; and that council determined as the 
other had done, and dismissed the minister for the third time. 
])Ut still the court held that he was not dismissed, because some 
of the same men were on the second council that were on the 
first, and this rendered its proceedings null and void ; for that a 
man could not be a judge who h.ad already made up and declared 
his mind. We state these points from recollection, but they are 
substantially correct. Thus the courts of Massachusetts, while 
they disclaimed all interfei-ence with ecclesiastical affairs, and re- 
fused to in(juire whether a minister had broken his contract by 
preaching exactly opposite doctrine from that which he was cm- 
ployed to preach, did really o\ci-throw the whole fabric of Con- 
gregational liberty, and establish mutual councils, which might or 
might not be possible to be obtained, as ecclesiastical tribunals, 
holding the parishes and pastors in absolute control. Under 
these legal decisions some parishes have been despoiled of their 
estates by ministers who refused to go away, though after beino- 
told that their services were not wanted and would not be tole- 
rated. Ojipressive as these strange legal doctrines liave been, it 
is diflicult to correct ihe mischief; for the time of settling a pas- 
tor is not a time when it is agreeable to talk of, or make provi- 
sion for, the dissolution of the connection. Several cases have 
uccui-red lately, in which the doings of councils in overruling 
the liberty of pastors or parishes, or both, have attracted unusual 
attention. 

IS'ol many months ago, one of the churches in Boston invited 
Mr. Held, of Salisbury, Ct., to become their pastor, and he ac- 
cepted the invitation ; but the consociation, wliich was the coun- 
cil in the case, and claimed authority, refused their assent. Not 
very long ago, a pr isli in the same neighborhood desired, with 
entire unanimity, v > instal a particular minister as their pastor, 
who had accepted their invitation ; but the consociation refused 
their assent, and as the consociation claimed final jurisdiction in 
13 



290 DR. BEECH ER ON CHRISTIAN UNION. 

the case, the wish of botli minister a,nd people wns set at nought. 
Out of the jurisdiction of consociations new councils would have 
been called, until one was found which would perform the cus- 
tomary services of an installation. 

Just now a similar result with that first named has happened 
before a mutual council, called in the matter of the invitation pre- 
sented by the Church of the Pilgrims to Mr. Storrs, of Brook- 
line, near Boston. Mr. Storrs, as Mr. Reid had done, declared 
liis clear conviction that duty required him to accept the invita- 
tion ; but the council in this case also refused assent. It is un- 
derstood that the ministers Avere in favor of dismissing Mr. Storrs, 
and the laymen against it. In both cases the gentlemen are com- 
pelled to remain and labor, contrary to their convictions of duty. 
Such forced relations can hardly be expected to last long, or be 
quite happy while they continue. If a minister or parish have 
doubts about what ought to be done, they may well ask advice 
and abide by it ; but it is a new doctrine among Congregational- 
ists, that councils shall compel, or courts compel, or anything 
compel, the beginning or continuance of pastoral relations, when 
either party is distinctly desirous of their termination ; and the 
fact that these modern ])roceedings do indeed overthrow the 
Avholc Congregational j)lan of free action, must bring up the ques- 
tion, whether a ncAv practice ought not to be adopted, by Avhich 
councils shall be dispensed with. Certainly Ave should think the 
Puritan spirit of liberty must be considerably tamed, if such ab- 
soluteness of councils is lono- endured. 



DR. BEECIIER ON CHRISTIAN UNION. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, October 15, 1846.] 

A CROWDED audience assembled at the Broadway Tabernacle on 
Sabbath evening, to hear Dr. Beecher's views of the late meeting 
in London of the Evangelical Alliance. Dr. Bccchcr will always 
have great assemblies to hear him, as long as he is able to speak. 
He speaks from a generous and full soul, and is a strong indepen- 
dent mind. His thoughts are usually right ; but whether right 
or wrong, they are always great thoughts. 

He began his discourse by stating the great truth that the 
real Church of Christ is always a unity. That is a proposition 
self-evident, as well as evident from the teaching of the Ncav Tes- 
tament. The disciples of every master are a xmity, for it is tlie 
adoption of the same ]irecepts of the master, which makes them 
disciples. The true disciples of Thomas Jefferson are a unity. 



DR. BEECH EU ON CHRISTIAN UNION. 291 

Many may call themselves disciples from interested motives, or 
from ignorance of what he taught, and some may tliink tlicm- 
selvcs Jiis (iisciplos wlio are not, because they have been too 
carehss to find out accurately Avhat he did teach. Such persons 
may form as many Jfllcr.sonian St)cielies as tliey will, — it does not 
make them at all the more his disci])les. 'I'lu; disciples of Christ 
must be a unity, tluii'cfore, and of an infiniiely higlier nature than 
is suggested by tliis illustration, l^ut Dr. lieecher seemed to 
confuse this idea by passing to the multitude of Christian churches 
of all denominations, and s])e;iking of them as if they were this 
very unity, or were composed of tbis very same united and true 
church. Tiiat this is not so, and in fact that all tliese associations 
are almost certain to have more or less persons in them who do 
not belong to the i-eal unily, and that it is cpiite ])ossible to form 
such a nominal church without a single such j)erson in it, is quite 
as evident as the proposition of real unity among real discij)les. 

Dr. Beecher spoke eloquently of the value of " xuiion for the 
sake of union," and it seemed to us most truly. Happiness is the 
object of all effort, and what brings such a flood of that, as union, 
and above all. Christian union ? To make such a thing universal, 
or even extensive, is worth all the labor that it can cost. In- 
deed, to see so good a man as Dr. Kcfjchcr made as haj)py as he 
evidently was made by the convocation at Jjondon, would, to a 
generous heart, be compensation enougli for all the trouble and ex- 
jjense of that great gatliei ing. Said the Doctor : " The first I saw 
of it was in my ni;ws])aj)er, as 1 was silently reading it. I'll go ! 
I'll go! I exclaimed. Go where? said my wife. I'll go! I'll 
go! said I. Go ivhcre? said my wife, thinking 1 had gone crazy. 
Why to London, said I, to this Cliristian Union." "Who shall say, 
after the mere idea of union has so stirred the blood of such a 
man as if it were the blood of a boy, that union for tlie sake of 
union is nothing; nay, that it is not a glorious thing, worthy the 
aspirations and the efforts of every good man ? 

Dr. J^eecher expatiated largely upon tlie evils of dissension and 
sectarian controversies in the church, meaning, as it seemed, the 
visible churches, and at the same time the true church, lie said 
that wliile the enemies of Christ were; united and concentrated, 
the diderent divisions of the church had l)een divided, expending 
half their strength in opposing (;ach other, and leaving but half 
with which to oppose the united hosts of the common enemy ; — 
really doing little but marching backwards and forwards, 'flie 
ground gained by the Reformation had in this way been half of it 
lost, and all would be lost unless the cluu'ch could ])e concentrat- 
ed and orgaTiized in unity. If an organized unity could \w edect- 
ed ; if the mighty hosts of the church, who were lighting in little 



292 DR. BEECIIKR ON CHRISTIAN UNION. 

squads or individually, and so much against each other, could be 
■wheeled uj)c)u the right and the left into one grand united army, 
tlie victory would be sure and sjieedy, and tlie triumph glorious. 
Wo confess that almost all this scenied to us entirely erroneous. 
It is not certain, by a great deal, that the division ot' Protestant 
Christians into various denominations, to some extent antagonis- 
tic to each othei', has really lessened their success. At any rate, 
such divisions were a necessary consecjuence of tliinking. Jf men 
do not think, they may perhaps think alike, to use a solecism ; 
or if they have no intelligent belief of anything, tlien they may 
all believe as they arc told. But if they thiidv and reason, they 
will come to different conclusions ; and who can say that there has 
been, in the aggri'gate, less real union and hearty coopi'i'ation, be- 
cause men have fallen apart and fallen together according to the 
alhnities which have resulted from universal thinking. The ob- 
ject of ellbrt has after all been the same ; the design harmonious ; 
and however much men may love to do gooil for the sake of good- 
ness, they are not yet so high in virtue, that a little rivalry in the 
common cause may not add to the common result. General 
Taylor's volunteers light all the better because they have been 
found in ditlerent States. But after all, we shall not deny that sec- 
tarianism has often been carried to wicked and injurious extremes. 
Yet it is not a thing of such unmingled mischief as the l)i)ctor 
represented it. To assume that next to nolliing has been accom- 
plished in the last fifty years ; nay, that to go on as we are going 
Avill end in ruin, it seems to us is denying tlie facts of which every 
man is cogniz;i.nt. Ivuowledge and C^iuistian charity, and the do- 
minion of true Bible principles, have been spreading, and arc 
spreading gloriously on every hand, and faster and faster the good 
work goi>s on in each revolving year. Tiiat a great organization 
into visil)le unity would give us the victory, we do not believe at 
all. It was just this scheme which set the Pope on his throne, 
and carried the Chiistian Church in one giand oi'ganized unity 
back to Paganism. Equally incorrect is the notion that the ene- 
mies of Cliiistianity have acted in unity, they have been at least 
us much divided as Christians have been. No, it is not organiza- 
tion, but freedom, that religion wants to insure success. It was 
individual freedom which gave to Chiistianity its early triumphs, 
and organization tliat threw away all the labor. Yet nu'n, and 
good and wise men. will learn nothing by the tremendous disas- 
ter. Instead of trusting to their Master and liis truth, the pano- 
ply of the gospel, in singU.'-hauded warfare, they will still try to 
establish little popedoms and great popedoms, and rely on organ- 
ization and combination, contrary to the commands of the Great 
Captaui, and all experience. For ourselves, if wo must have one 



D U . n K K C II K U ON C 11 U I S T I A N UNION. 293 

p;rc:it cenlnil orifiinmul union, wis should not care much Avhothcr 
its s(!iit wcro at London or at Rome. If men would hii(, jjliiloso- 
phize a little, they would sec that truth is not stniuj^tliened by 
alliances and or<rani/,ations. Pliysical force is increas(;d hy the 
accumulation of nund)ers, hut truth is, just as mighty wiu'n lisp- 
ed by a cliild or a hv.gffir, as when ])r()claimed from the head 
of assembled l(^<,nons. Ideas seek deliverance from the incum- 
Ixaiices of such thintrs. Reason asks for reasoninif ; truth calls 
for pieachers, — individual men goin<r forth to proclaim and prove 
it. What does a syllogism j)rove more, when j)ro[)ounded by ten 
thousand men, than by one man? How is tlu; testimony of the 
Scripture writers inon; convincing because enforced by the unit- 
ed resolution of a multitude, than by one single tongue. This 
notion, that great organizations are to strengtlujn truth or secure 
ical unit}', is as un])hilosoj)hical as it is unscriptural. ^i'he (sffect 
of such things has always been to embarrass that Ucc individual 
ell'ort, that must do about all that is done to s[)read knowledge 
and truth. Assoc^iations for certain spccilic objcicts, may be use- 
ful. Small contributions may be gathered into a conmion treas- 
ury, and so, little drops mak<! an ocean ; but this is a very dif- 
ferent thing from ecclesiastical organizations. U these organiza- 
tions assume any general supervision of individual conduct, they 
would fall into common error. J5ut we must leave our readers 
lo think out the rest of this topic, hoping only that we have said 
<'nough to be understood, and not misunderstood. 

Dr. J5ecclier repeated the representation so often made, that 
the crowned heads of Europe are conniving with tlie Poj)e to re- 
sist the spread of knowledge, and especially of Christian know- 
ledge, among the people ; and that a mighty combin.ation is form- 
ing which will one day burst with overwhelming force upon tho 
church. We suppose that he is entinily mistaken in all this, and 
we think imputations so injurious sh(juld either be sustained by 
som(! proof, or omitted. What is then; ujion the face of Europe 
now to authorize such a charge ? Doubtless tluue are crowned 
heads in ]^]urope who are (|uite two jealous arid fearful of liberty. 
And this is not strange, wlien among ourselves there are so many 
thousands of intcilligent men who are all the time in alarm at the 
(Ireadcid ellects of self-government. Every wh(!re mew are afraid 
to trust themselves to the democracy of their f(!llow-m(!n. Tiio 
rulers of Europe are not likely to be more fr(!e from sucii fears, 
than otluM' men; and they are fearful of bloody and vi(jl(!nt r(!vo- 
hitions, and liave entered into alliances to help each other against 
thou. I>ut that they have (!ntered into any alliance to jjrevent 
the circulation of IJibh; truth, is in our judgnudit not only with- 
out evidence, but au'ainst evidence. We thouirht there was 



294 MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 

strength in tlie remarks of the CathoHc Freeman's Journal, -when 
it replied to this assertion the other day by saying, that the prime 
minister of Cathohc France is a Protestant, and of Cathohc Spain 
a Jew. England is not certainly in this conspiracy, for her Am- 
bassadors are everywhere the protectors of the Bible men against 
the bigotry of the local church organizations. The prime minis- 
ter of France is not only a Protestant, but a man of such noble 
views of government as would adorn any post in our Republic. 
The old Pope was a narrow-minded bigot, raised in the last cen- 
tury, and never got out of it. But the new Pope seems to be a 
noble fellow, belonging to- this nineteenth century, and likely to 
adorn it by a liberal policy. Let us be happy about it, and cheer 
him on by commending what is right. Let us not discourage 
all right intentions in popes and kings, by pertinacious condem- 
nation of all they do, be it never so patriotic and enlightened. 

We regretted to hear Dr. Beecher speak as he did of Roman- 
ism in the West, representing its colleges, schools, and cathedrals, 
as beacons of alarm, outrunning Protestant institutions, and threat- 
ening to educate a generation to Romish doctrines, and so con- 
summate the subvei-sion of our free and happy institutions. We 
know not how a man of so much sagacious observation can speak 
such things, when less than one generation ago St. Louis, De- 
troit, and many other important Western places, were possessed 
by Catholics, — but not one of them is now, — and when in truth 
the energy of Protestant emigrants, notwithstanding the thou- 
sands of imported Catholics, has completely overthi-own their su- 
premacy in every direction. Such a day as this is not one for 
fearfulness, if only men will learn to trust in God, Truth and 
Liberty. 



MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 

New York, Jan. 29, 1847 

To the Editors of the J\''. E. Puritan: 

Gentlemen :— In the New York Evangelist of December 17th, there 
appeared an article from Dr. Eildy, of Newark, attackinj;; and entirely- 
misrepresenting tlie Michigan City Convention,, and calling Mr. Cooke 
of your paper and myself by name. The .article was " leaded," and put 
out in the most honoral)le style. According to all my understanding of 
rights, and my pr.actice as an editor, I was entitled to reply in my own 
way, restrained only by parliamentary rules of decorum. I immediately 
-wrote the enclosed, and presented it to the editor of the Evangelist, 
which, after keeping some five weeks .and debating the matter nota lit- 
tle, he declines to print. I hope you will do me the favor to print it. 
The Evangelist has repeatedly attacked Congregational movcmcuts in a 



MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 295 

very illiberal way, and this is not the first time that it has altogether 
refused to correct its misstatements ; and yet the paper is considered, I 
suppose, by many who take it, almost a Congregationalist. If I would 
write a feeble answer, a sort of half plea of guilty, there would be no 
difficulty in getting the Evangelist to print it ; but if the case of Congre- 
gationalism is set out in its triumphant righteousness, it is too danger- 
ous to do it common justice. 

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 

DAVm HALE. 

When an individual is assailed by name, before the public, he 
not only has the right to correct the mistakes which have been 
promulgated, but is under a sort of necessity to do so, in com*- 
tesy to his accuser. In Dr. Eddy's " Observations on the West," 
in your last paper, I expected to find an account of what he saw, 
but almost the whole article is occupied with criticisms on the 
Congregational Convention of Michigan City, which he came near 
to, but did not see. 

I am not of the number who feel great reverence for councils. 
Yet there is a certain amount of courtesy which is due to them 
and their members — at least the courtesy of truth. When Dr. 
Eddy names " Mr. Hale, of New York, and Rev. Parsons Cooke, 
of the Boston Puritan," as persons making special efforts to ac- 
compUsh what he disapproves, and then strews along such epi- 
thets as "narrow prejudice of sect," "sectarian violence," "ultra 
Congregationalists," " narrow sectarianism," and in contrast with 
these puts down " men of enlarged views, of Catliolic spirit, and 
genuine piety," I think he does discredit to the bump of vene- 
ration, which every man should have somewhere about his head. 
When he speaks of " the wildness and laxness of the English In- 
dependents of the I7th century," he must refer to Oliver Crom- 
well, John Milton, and their associates. Such things have been 
said of those men a million of times by Romanists and Episcopa- 
lians, but they do discredit either to the historic intelligence or 
Christian fairness of a divine who would build his churches on the 
platform of the Westminster Catechism. 

But to come to the im])ortant matter of the Concjrcgational 
Convention of Michigan City. Tliat is important, and being so 
ouglit to be correctly understood by both Congregationalists and 
Presbyterians. To make it so understood is ray design in writing 
this article : for as to Mr. Cooke, I shall leave him to his own 
care ; and my own poor name has been and continues to be so kick- 
ed about, that another kick from even a very respectable source 
would not be deeply felt. 

Dr. Eddy has been peculiarly unhappy in almost all the state- 
ments of his article. I do not suppose that " provision was re- 
quested for five hundred," though I do not know what some 



296 MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 

individuals might have requested. The Convention was not *' far 
from being liarraonious." On the question of abrogating the 
Plan of Union, there was perfect harmony, and that Avithout any 
persuasion from Mr. Cooke or myself. Tlie Western men called 
the Convention, and every man, whether from the West or the 
East, agreed that the plan of 1801 ought to be abandoned, and 
no new one formed. To be sure, the desire of imiversal legisla- 
tion, which so much and so improperly pervades almost all our 
ecclesiastical bodies, was exhibited there, and some gentlemen 
thought the Convention should resolve about slavery, perfection- 
tionisra,. temperance, and all the long list of matters which have 
been so often resolved and re-resolved. But a friendly discus- 
sion brought about a general agreement, that the Convention was 
going out of its design in taking up any of these questions, and 
they were all Avithdrawn, though I am sorry to say that one or 
tAvo resolutions of this sort had been adopted before this funda- 
mental discussion came up. The ConA'ention was eminently har- 
monious in feeling, and instead of leaving behind the stigma 
which some ecclesiastical meetings have, that " no revival of re- 
ligion could survive" them, religion was revived at Michigan City 
by the religious exercises, and the general deportment of the 
Convention. The pastor of the church said so, Avith great joy. 

Dr. Eddy misappi'ehends, and so mistakes entirely, as I think, 
the past influence of the Plan of Union, and I am sure he wholly 
misapprehends the design of the Convention. The documents 
published by the Convention set the matter forth honestly and 
fairly ; and if any one Avill read them candidly, he will see tliat 
there was good reason for Avhat Avas done. The Plan of Union 
lias all along been a bone of contention, instead of a bond of 
union. " Presbyterians and Congregationalists at the East, at the 
West, CA'crywhere, ought to be one," says Dr. Eddy. In my 
judgment the act of the Michigan City Convention Avill result in 
their being better united than before, and Avas in truth the only 
way to end the unhappy controversies Avliich have been festering 
for a long series of years. The two denominations are in many 
respects alike in this country. Their strength is chiefly among 
the same classes of society. Their doctrinal faith and modes of 
presenting it are similar. But in church organization and cjov- 
ernment, there are no tAvo denominations in the land more entirely 
and utterly at variance. The monarchical arrangements of prelacy 
are not more entirely opposed to the democratic independency of 
Congregationalism, than is the ruling eldership of Presbyterian- 
ism. The truth is, that the two denominations are Avell calculated 
to be friendly neighbors, but not to hve in the same house ; and I 
think history proves, that when too close a union is attempted, 



MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 297 

Presbyterianism is always the dissatisfied party. In the great 
Pui'itan revokition in England, the two denominations acted well 
together, un(,il ];)i-elacy and the first Charles were put down •, but 
then, immediately, the Presbyterians demanded that the Congre- 
gationahsts should becomi; Presbyterians, and that Presbyterian- 
ism should be established in the government. In vain did good 
Oliver Cromwell and tlie Independents proclaim perfect religious 
freedom of belief and worsliip, and make England then like Ame- 
I'ica now ; in vain they urged tliat m<ui sliould not be constrained 
about such matters. The Scotcli Piiesbyterians raised a great 
army, took Charles the Second into their camp, and marched to 
overthrow the government which they had fought so long to set 
up. They preferred the restoration of royalty and j)relacy to a 
freedom which did not recognize tiieir suprcmac}^ It was only by 
one of the master strokes of gallant genius with which God so 
often blessed Oliver, that lie was able to destroy this Presbyte- 
rian army, moi-e than twice as large as his own, and so save Eng- 
land's gloiious liberty for that time. If the Presbyterian Puri- 
tans could have been persuaded then to adopt the views of reli- 
gious freedom which the Congregationalists pronounced, the Com- 
monwealth would have lived to this day, and tliis world have 
been set on, centuries of civilization and i-eligious glory beyond 
its present position. 

New England was peopled by the Independents, and at more 
southern points were settlements of Presbyterians. It was natu- 
ral tliat in contending against the crown and the Episcopal liie- 
rarchy, the two should act as one, and cement again their olden 
friendship. At the date of the Plan of Union adopted by the 
General Assembly, and the Connecticut General Association, tlie 
horrors of French anarchy had alarmed tlie pastors and lead- 
ing men of Connecticut, who instead of turning to more perfect 
liberty for protection, sought for it in strengthening tlie hands 
and increasing the powers of government. It was under such 
impressions that the Union was formed, and hundreds of Congre- 
gational churches west and south of New England advised to as- 
sume the Presbyterian form of government. The great mass of 
the people in New England, however, were not disposed to 
change their home institutions. Thus commenced this new 
"Plan of Union." But what was this Union? It provided not 
for amalgamation, not for the rule of one denomination over the 
other, nor that one should swallow up the other. It was a very 
slight plan of intercourse merely, and if its simplicity liad been 
maintained, there would have been no necessity for the Michigan 
City Convention. 

But, (I trust I may give my views freely and without oflfense,) 



298 MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 

Presbyterians had no thought of such an union. They insisted 
that the union should take the shape of Presbyterianism every- 
where. Everything must have the name, at least, as far as pos- 
sible the 2^owers, of the Presbytery. Hundreds of Congregational 
ministers and churches connected themselves with Presbyteries, 
but never one Presbyterian pastor or church, so far as I know, ever 
thought of such a thing as joining a Congregational Association. 
Our churches extend the hand of friendship to yours on all our 
occasions of social intercourse. They have invited you a thou- 
sand times to participate in their councils, and you never once re- 
turned the civility. Your ministers are received and settled as 
pastors in our churches, without being asked to abjure their Pres- 
byterianism ; but when oui's are invited to be pastors of Pres- 
byterian churches, they must answer " the constitutional ques- 
tions," and subscribe to the whole book, at least " for substance 
of doctrine." Repeatedly they have been rejected, and a happy 
prospective relation broken up, because the pastor elect could not 
subscribe to the exclusive divine right of Presbyterianism. 

The churches over the whole Western Reserve, though Con- 
gregational still, are organized as Presbyterian, and so are hun- 
dreds of churches elsewhere. The young ministers of New Eng- 
land have not carried with them the same spirit of independency 
Avhich has pervaded other emigrants 1.0 the West. They had im- 
bibed the opinions of the early fathers of this century, and every- 
where exerted themselves to carry the churches over to thorough 
Presbyterianism. Some two thousand Congregational churches 
have, under these influences, been transferred to Presbyterianism, 
During this display of Christian liberality and denominational Ca- 
tholicism, the like of which the world never witnessed, you have 
not allowed a single church to change the other way without the 
most determined resistance. Yet you call ?<s bigots, narrow- 
minded sectaiians, and disturbers of Christian peace, because we 
insist on being Congregationalists, and so maintaining the clear 
design of the plan of 1801. 

While the " time-hallowed plan" was working out these things, 
the controversy between tlie Old and New Scliools came on in 
the General Assembly, which continued to burn with fiercer and 
fiercer fury, until it burst in a dread earthquake, seveiing the 
Presbyterian Church in twain, and casting the New School men 
off as nothing better than Congregationalists ! That exhibition of 
the terrific effects of attempting to mix in one mass things so op- 
posite, startled the churches, and made them inquire for the 
cause. From that time, the distinctive Congregational spirit has 
been rising. There are multitudes of Christians who have examin- 
ed the subject, and come to the conclusion that all systems which 



MICHIGAN CITYCONVENTION. 299 

create official rule in the church are inconsistent with the exam- 
ple and the precepts of Christ and his inspired followers. They 
have also come to the conclusion that Congregationalism is alto- 
gether better than Presbyterianism — that its government is 
stronger, more peaceful, better calculated for the education of 
Cliristians in high virtue and evangelical action ; and that it is 
above all other systems, fitted to work peacefully in cooperation 
with the opinions and habits of the free, self-governing people of 
the United States. We are, therefore, in conscientious earnest- 
ness, attempting to promote it ; but only, I trust, in such ways as 
Christian integrity and kindness authorize. All our efforts to es- 
tablish Congregationalism, or rather to keei) it among those who 
were educated in it, have been met with hard names, as Dr. Eddy 
assails the Michigan Convention. They who attempt to be sim- 
ple Congregationalists are freely termed disorganizers, bigots, dis- 
turbers of the peace, perfectionists, Brownists, sectarians, narrow- 
minded, and not of the New England School. Such efforts arc, 
as Dr. Eddy says the Convention is, everywhere condemned. 
The truth is that our brethren of the New School have assumed 
most freely, that the country was theirs, and that Congregation- 
alism had no business anywhere out of New England. Instead 
of promoting the peace of the Congregational churches, they have 
been held in constant disturbance by their union with Presbyte- 
ries. In numerous instances, where a majority of a Congregational 
church which had never put itself under tlie authority of Pres- 
bytery have passed votes not approved by Presbytery, jurisdic- 
tion has been usurped over the church, and the minority declar- 
ed to be the church, on no other ground than its adherence to the 
advice or authority of Presbytery ; thus often rending the 
churclies in twain, or at least estabhshing a controversy against 
the majority sustained by Presbytery, which the life of a gene- 
ration was not sufficient to heal. In one instance, a Presbytery 
in Michigan asked leave to hold its session in a Congregational 
meeting-house, and while enjoying this courtesy, got secretly to- 
gether the less influential portion of the church, and formed them 
into a Presbyterian church, and declared them the Church in that 
large town. The church had up to that hour been harmonious, 
but here was a fire-brand which burned up their peace, until to 
save religion from ruin, the wronged portion of the church submit- 
ted to this , I will not give it a name, and now that is a Pres- 
byterian church. One of the Presbyteries in Ohio declared sol- 
emnly and publicly, that a church which had adopted the Plan of 
Union, and so attached itself to the Presbytery, by merely agree- 
ing to send in its statistics, and if it pleased, a delegate, had by 
that act become an integral part of the Presbytery, and could 



300 MICHIGAN CITY CONVENTION. 

not withdraw without self-dissohition. A multitude of such 
things have occurred, and doubtless in the controversy, Congrega- 
tionalists have said and done some, perhaps many, unadvised 
things. But they have never assumed jurisdiction over Presby- 
terian churches, nor done anything resembling these Presbyte- 
rian aggressions. 

The history of the Union of 1801 proved to the Michigan City 
Convention, that in its 2)cn<crsions it had been a fountain of dis- 
cord, of evils great and multiplied, beyond farther endurance, and 
that one of tliree things must be done, viz. : this controversy 
must continue and endure, or Congregationalism must be aban- 
doned and handed over to Presbyterianism, or a friendly and entire 
separation must be pronounced. We unanimously adopted the 
last alternative. If we had taken the second, the Congregational 
churches would not have followed our advice, and if they had 
followed it, the effervescing elements would have still remained 
in conflict. We believed Congregationalism the fittest church 
polity for the West, without, however, claiming or desiring to 
hinder any other denomination from laboring and building 
churches as they may. Nay, the more others do, the better 
shall we be pleased, and the Convention with the widest liber- 
ality recommended, that Congregationalists should hold them- 
selves ready to cooperate with their brethren of all otho' denom- 
inations in everything which should promote the interests of pure 
religion at the West, upon such terms as the local circumstances 
might indicate. We have not withdi-awn from real union with 
Presbyterians, but have established with them a better basis of 
union ; a practical basis, upon which we may unite in agreement, 
and not in discord. This is all that was intended by this con- 
demned Convention — all that was done. We made no war on any 
Christian brother. We called no one a bigot or a sectarian, or a 
tyrant, or any other hard name. We had no hard feelings, 
though we had some hard opinions of certain very jiard transac- 
tions. We knew we had a r'ujht to he Conf/rcpafionallsfs, and in- 
tended to maintain that right, and now, God blessing our efforts, 
as he has, (and I trust will in time to come,) those who condemn 
us shall see us scattered abroad over the West, going everywhere 
pi'caching the word, and we hope that Presbyterians in an equally 
good spirit will do so too, and build two churches to our one. 
From whence, then, is controversy to come with all the terrific 
evils which Doctor Eddy portrays ? Not from Congregationalism, 
for that has not changed its spirit, though it has changed its plan 
of action. If there is controversy hereafter, it will be from the 
same source as heretofore. It will be because Presbyterians con- 
tinue to deny and resist the right of American Christians to be 



PASTORS AND CHURCHES. 301 

Congregationalists, and worship according to tlie dictates of their 
consciences. This usurpation I liope and believe Congregational- 
ists will no longer endure, but with kind decision will maintain 
their civil and religious liberty. 

I ask Doctor Eddy to ponder this matter, to read his letter 
again, and see what epithets he has applied to an old friend, and 
virtually to thousands of his Chi-istian brethren, and intjuire if it 
is not time that such things had an end. I ask him to look at 
the Con<rre"ational churches which have been established here 

p o 

within six years ; the Tabernacle, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, the 
Free Churches, and say whether these are ultrct Congregational, 
sectarian, disorganizing, unbrotherly, mischief-making churches. 
I ask him if he can tcsll where more perfect kindness and good 
order is to be found, than here. And yet these churches have 
been established upon the same sentiments which pervaded the 
Michigan City Convention. 1'liese are all dislinctive Congrega- 
tional churches, that is, real Congregational churches, and 7iot 
Presbyterian churches. They are, if you please, ultra Congre- 
gational churches ; for nothing is more ultra than the perfect 
equality of the brotherhood, and the concentration of ail necessary 
power in one church, which are the fundamental principles of all 
Congregationalism. Principaliticis and powers are blotted out 
here, the utmost radicalism can go no farther. And yet, here are 
hberty and union, order, peace, and energy, such as no system of 
labored organization can equal. At least, so many of us believe 
and profess, and, so believing, are bound to show our faith by our 
works. 

These circumstances seem to compel what otherwise would 
look egotistical, the subscription of my name, which is 

DAVID HALE. • 



RELATION OF PASTORS TO THEIR CHURCHES. 
[Frotn the Boston Recorder, March, 1847.] 

Messrs. Pjditoks : — The discussion which has occurred in the 
Recorder exhibits a confused, if not a superstitious state of mind. 
The truth is very obvious, however, in simple Congregationalism, 
as it is in the New Testament. The confusion arises from the 
adoption of radical errors respecting the ministry. The effort to 
reconcile those errors with truth, or with other errors, only 
involves him who attempts it in great ditiiculty. " I am your 
master and all ye are brethren," explains the whole matter. Every 
disciple is a preacher, appointed and authorized, nay, commanded 



302 PASTORS AND CHURCHES. 

by Christ, to preach the gospel as God shall give him opportu- 
nity ; to preach as Paul did, " from house to house," by the 
way-side, in the synagogue, the Sabbath-school, the pulpit, wlier- 
ever a sound and humble discretion and desire to honor not him- 
self, but Christ, shall see the way opened. Even they who are 
not disciples are bound to preach. He that heareth must say 
come, and every one must go, repeating what he has heard, 
whether he has embraced tlie truth to the saving of his soul 
or not. The New Testament furnishes no record of " licens- 
ing" men to pi"each, of putting hands on men's heads, or 
doing anything else as a preliminary to preaching. These 
things were got up in the dark times of prelacy, and whether 
expedient or inexpedient now, were not practiced at the be- 
ginning of Christianity. No one in those days waited for liberty 
to preach. No body of men or individual man pretended to 
impart such liberty. When the church Avhich was at Jerusalem 
were all scattered abroad, except the apostles, they that were 
scattered loent everywhere preaching the word. If the gentlemen 
who have been writing in the Recorder will turn to the eighth 
chapter of Acts, they will there find the institution of the gospel 
ministry. This is the " order" which the Holy Ghost has ap- 
pointed. All the rest is man's devising. It may be expedient 
now, though it was not then, to license and lay on hands. But 
Congregationalism holds these things as ceremonies merely, not 
matters of authority or necessity. 

Next, what is the church and church membership ? The true 
church of Christ is a spiiitual body. It is within men. It is 
composed of those who by repentance and faith have united 
themselves to Christ, and so become parts of his spiritual body. 
The external associations which are organized by men in various 
ways, composed more or less, or possibly not at all, of true disci- 
ples, are not the church for which Christ died, nor to which he 
has left his promises. If they are, then Rome is the mother of 
us all, and " succession" is the channel of authority and grace to 
priest and people. The associations denominated churcnes' of 
Christ are constructed upon plans of their own devising ; it may 
be more and it may be less in accordance with the will of Christ. 
It may be in iitter opposition to his will. In primitive times the 
disciples signed no confession, entered into no written obligations 
of an}' sort. They merely "joined themselves unto the Lord." 
Whoever came and consorted together with the disciples was a 
church member, which is only saying that thej^ who composed 
the congregation were members of the congregation. If any 
such person was heretical or immoral, the rest put forth a decla- 
ration of the fact, excluding him from the congregation, or at 



PASTORS AND CHURCHES. 303 

any rate declaring the assembly or cliurcli, and CLiistianity, no 
longer responsible for him. 

These views may be new, and even astonishing to many "New 
England people, and much more so to people elsev/here. Yet 
they are just the facts which Ave have been reading in the New 
Testament from our infancy, and misunderstanding all our lives, 
because ceremonies have constantly addressed the opposite doc- 
trine to our senses. I think no man can be in difficulty about 
the relation of a pastor to his people, with these views, unless 
the perversion of the word pastor to meaning exclusively the 
public Sabbath-day preacher in the mectmg-house, may still ob- 
scure it. He ranks with the preacher in the Sabbath-school, 
with all the church, who all preach (announce) the gospel, or 
should do so, in their hves and conversations. He is a brother, 
and comes regularly with the assembhng church, to do the ser- 
vice which the church have assigned him as their most jiublic and 
formal preacher. Whether he have " signed the book" or not, 
the Cliristian community in which he is are bound to watch over 
him, to admonish him if necessary ; to see that he, no more than 
any brother, exercises lordship in the church ; and if his immo- 
ralities demand the painful measure, to declare by their own act, 
as a church, or through some other medium, that Christianity, or 
at least this body of its professors, no longer endorses his Chris- 
tian character. He has not received his authority to preach either 
from the church or any ecclesiastical body. If he is a hypocrite, 
he must answer for that to the master whom he has belied ; 
and if he is a true disciple, all the anathemas of hypocritical or 
mistaken churches or ecclesiastical bodies cannot take away his 
commission, signed and sealed as it is by the •' Captain of Salva- 
tion." The "license," as it is called, by the church, or ministers, 
is nothing but an expression of their ojnnion, a, letter of recom- 
mendation. It may be very useful and proper to be taken by a 
man going among strangers, as similar letters are by merchants 
when they go to a distant market, in whicli they are unknown. 
It establishes the credit of the person by the testimony of known 
and accredited witnesses. The one is not a license to buy goods, 
nor the other a license to preach. Both are facilities alike in their 
nature, and simply transfer a man's character with his person. 
In both cases, if the persons issuing such letters of recommenda- 
tion find that they were themselves deceived all the time, or that 
the individual has since become unworthy of trust, it is their 
duty to revoke the letters of credit with all necessary publicity. 
To " silence" any man, to say he shall not preach, is not the ec- 
clesiastical right of any man or body of men ; and blessed be 
God, it is not in our land, within the civil power of govern- 



304 ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 

ments, in tlie church or the state. The owners of a meeting- 
house may, to be sure, hccnse or allow a man to preach in 
that house. And so may an ecclesiastical body regulate their 
own proceedings within the house of their meeting. But this is 
the limit of their authority either of allowance or prohibition. 
Their influence may with propriety extend much farther, but 
when they attempt to extend their authority farther, they are at 
once stripped of power. If a company of ministers form them- 
selves into a society to govern one another, and mutually agree 
to be disciplined and silenced by the majority, wicked as the 
arrangement would be, it would place the members in a volun- 
tary subjection, which might make the path of duty obscure to a 
good man. But without such an agreement, when the true dis- 
ciple of Christ is silenced by the decree of any council, he is to 
disregard it entii-ely, and preach on the more earnestly. When 
the high priest and all they that were with him commanded the 
apostles not to speak in that manner, and shut them up in prison, 
then the angel of the Lord opened the prison-doors, and brought 
them out, and said, " Go stand in the temple, and S2)eak (preach) 
to the peoiiile all the tvords of this li/e.^' When they were 
arraigned again before the council, and the chief priest inquired 
sternly, " did not tve straightway command you ?" the short but 
conclusive answer of Peter and all of them was, " We ought to 
obey God, rather than man." The same principles which 
prompted that noble answer then, and which we now so much 
approve, will sustain the same answer under similar circumstances 
to the end of the world. Where then is the mystery or the 
difficulty in understanding the relation of a minister to the people ? 

Quo. . 



ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 

l^From the Journal of Commerce, JVovember 5, 1847.] 

Nothing surprises a candid layman more than the party and 
bad legislation of ecclesiastical bodies. It is a great fault of all 
legislators, and of public sentiment also, to desire that everything 
should be regulated by statute law. When an evil has been 
cured by discussion, and the reformation in public opinion 
brought into a controlling position, then it is that a law must be 
made, and the living power be laid in the grave of a dead letter. 
But nowhere is the true prelacy of leading influence so much 
discarded as in ecclesiastical circles. Nowhere is influence 
so controlling, and nowhere is it so thrown away. Ministers, 



ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 305 

who might have everything their own way upon the respect 
v/hich is felt for them personally, seem fond of throwing away 
this great power of usefulness, and carrying what they deem ex- 
pedient by the pains and penalties of law. Nor are they often 
scrupulous to inquire whether they have any constitutional pos- 
session of the power which they thus attempt to wield. If a 
thing is thought desirable, it is to be enacted. " God's constitu- 
tion of necessity" might be the proper i-ule for Oliver Crom- 
well, when under that rule alone could the liberties of England, 
or the lives of a majority of her people, be saved from the 
butchery of Romish persecutors. But now times are changed, 
and there is no excuse in these days for usurping authority 
which was never delegated. We have scarcel}^ seen an act 
which more strongly illustrates this unwise disposition, than one 
which we find in the proceedings, of the New York Presbytery, 
who, according to the reports in the religious papers, amended 
their rules respecting churches, by enacting " that no vacant 
church shall hereafter employ any minister or hcentiate (not be- 
longing to this presbytery) for more than two Sabbaths, nor 
take any steps preparatory to the calling of such minister or 
licentiate, to be their pastor, without applying to the presbytery 
if in session, or if in the intervals of presbytery, to the standing 
committee of supplies." 

Such enactment, it seems to us, reflects illiberally upon the 
pastors themselves. If they have done their duty as pastors in 
their own churches, and in the churches around, are not the 
people sounder in doctrine, and in all knowledge, than this rule 
implies ? And have the opinions of the pastors collectively 
so little influence, that they can only control the people by 
law, and such a law as this ? But the churches connected with 
this Old School Presbytery are among the most intelligent of the 
city, and the pastors among the most respected, influential, 
and we may add liberal, too. What would the pastors think, 
if the people should decree that none of them should interchange 
with the denomination which we suppose this rule is especially 
intended to affect? But the Presbytery have no power to 
make such a law. It is an outright usurpation, which we 
are sure was not intended ; and it is only because of the great 
love and respect which the people feel for their pastors, that 
they bear such legislation. What could more fully prove that it 
is unnecessary and unwise ? Such things in religious affairs are 
bad in their influence. They confuse men's ideas about their 
rights, and prepare them to submit to usurpations in politics, and 
in other religious denonainations. Our political liberty grew out 
of religious liberty, and rests upon it. The great Puritan doc- 



306 ORDINARY MEANS OF GRACE. 

trines of the individual rights and responsibihties of men hold up 
tlie fabric of our political liberty. We have all, therefore, the 
deepest stake in the maintenance of those doctrines in all our re- 
ligious organizations. 



ORDINARY MEANS OF GRACE. 
\_From the Boston Recorder, December 1, 1847.] 

I SEE this awkward phrase used very often, and apparently 
without any very exact idea, or at least without any fitness of 
the phrase to the idea. Ordinary often means inferior, of poor 
quality, but that I suppose is not intended. What is an ordi- 
nary means of grace ? Is it a settled pastor, or is it two meet- 
ings on the Sabbath, and as many sermons, and perhaps a 
lecture and a prayer-meeting during the week? These are 
often very good, and often very ordinary, in every sense of the 
word. What are extraordinary means of grace? Does a minis- 
ter, w^ho in his own parish is an ordinary moans of grace, become 
an extraordinary means by going to anotlicr parish ; or is a min- 
ister who has no parish an extraordinary means always ? Do 
those men who use this phrase mean the means whicli God ordi- 
narily uses or which men ordinarily use ? Tlie object seems 
to be to praise ordinary means, to tlie disparagement of extraor- 
dinary means. If the intention is to say that there is nothing 
more to be done for bringing about or carrying on a rc\ival 
of religion than what is ordinarily done when thei-e is no revival, 
and no wish for one, then it is a most pernicious error. If 
the indistinct impression which originates the phrase is, that 
God has two classes of preachers, ordinary and extraordinary, 
that also must be an error. If they who use the phrase intend 
to use it to disparage those preachers whose eflbrts God has 
blessed with extraordinary efl'ect, and made the means of gather- 
ing extraordinary numbers into the kingdom of Christ, then the 
intention is a plain contradiction of the well-known facts of 
God's providence. If finally the design is to get up a sentiment 
which shall forbid the churches from employing at any time 
other men to use the means of grace than their own pastors, 
then it is a plan of hierarchy of a very dangerous character. It 
is not every man Avho is a good pastor who is best qualified for 
reaching the consciences of men, and rousing them to seek salva- 
tion earnestly. Paul has tried to make us understand that we 
are all endowed with some gifts, but none of us with all gifts. 
Every one is a head, foot, or hand, but no one is the whole 
body. The history of great revivals proves, that the ordinary means 



THE STATE, CHURCH, AND FAMILY. 307 

of grace for them are one, or at most a few men, full of faith 
and of the Holy Ghost, going like Paul and Peter from house to 
liouse and place to place. The life of Mr. NeLtleton is a full 
illustration of this; and are we to have a system dehberately 
built up by which such men shall be excluded from the pulpits 
by the dictation of the pastors, however much the churches may 
desire to bring them in as colaborers ? If the men who use this 
phrase mean any distinct thing by it, I wish they would tell us 
distinctly what they mean, and what they intend to bring about 
by this new phrase. Querist. 



THE STATE, THE CHURCH, AND THE FAMILY. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May 17, 1848.] 

Thesk institutions are much dwelt on, and b}' clergymen often 
represented as three institutions of .Jehovah for the benefit of 
man. . Rev. Mr. Kirk, of Boston, repeated to a crowded audience 
in the Tabernacle his sermon before the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society, in which he took the same view of the matter. 
The Church, he said, was composed of organized bodies of pro- 
fessed Christians. This was the great conservative power in the 
world, — an organized Church. This was the salt of the earth 
mentioned in the text. But to a very great extent Mr. Kirk 
treated religion as an individual obligation. He spoke of Sab- 
bath-schools, colporteurs, the distribution of Bibles, tracts, &c., 
as mighty means in saving the woi'ld ; yet insisted that an 
organized Church was the power. He said God had instituted 
no particular mode of organization ; and he rejected the papacy 
from being a department of the Church of Christ, though it has 
more organization than any other body of professed Christians. 
In these days it would not be amiss to say that God has ap- 
pointed no particular form of organization for the State. We 
have been expecting that the preachers of at least the Congre- 
gational denomination would come to a different mode of treating 
these topics before long, and conclude that the Church of Christ 
is not created by oi'ganization, but exists in every true disciple 
of his, wherever he may be, however organized or unorganized, 
and that they would then see that truth is the great conserva- 
tive power in the world, and organizations good or bad, just as 
they help or hinder its promulgation. As to both Church and 
State, this idea of organism has confounded and bewildered 
most men. It is difficult to see how simple organization could 
be prescribed, without some particular form being prescribed. 
What is organization ? What is it, when you have it in its best 



308 THE TRUE CHURCH. 

estate, but a mere facility, by which men act together ? By it, 
many times, bad or heartless men are able to embarrass the 
earnest and benevolent, so as to stultify their efforts. Such or- 
ganizations cannot be a great power for usefulness. The State, 
and the people in it, may go to ruin, in spite of all the church 
organizations, where the people merely sit down in eai'nest about 
nothing but their own enjoyment. 



THE CHURCH— WE'VE FOUND IT. 
[From an unjnihUshed Manuscript. "l 

We commenced a search for the true Church of our Lord Je- 
sus Christ some time ago, and we presented the result in an 
article headed, " The Church, where is it ?" We stated then 
the result of our investigation into the two principal grounds 
upon which sundry organizations claim to be acknowledged as 
the Church. They are unity, and apostolic succession ; and wo 
found a total Avant of evidence that either of these things ac- 
tuall}^ exists in any of them. Unity certainly does not, as every 
body knows ; and as to apostolic succession, we came directly 
to the conclusion that no priest on earth could make out not 
only that absolute certainty iipon which the whole matter de- 
pends, but any tolerable probability that the chain of descent 
has been maintained unbroken from the apostles to himself. 
Utterly defeated, therefore, in our search after the Church upon 
such principles, and still believing that there is a church some- 
where, we determined to pursue the inquiry, and the head of 
this article announces with what happy success. We have 
found the Church of Christ, " which he has purchased with his 
own blood," the church out of which there is no salvation, and 
within which there is no condemnation. It is the Holy Catho- 
lic Church. 

The quotation which we have made above indicates the course 
of our search. We turned to the declarations of the great 
Founder of the Church, and of those persons who were its first 
members. Here was an exceedingly interesting field of investi- 
gation, and we are happy to say, as satisfactory and rational as 
it was interesting. We noticed at once that the word translated 
church, means congregation or company or assembly, and is so 
miiformly translated in the Old Testament, and frequently in the 
New. Feeling that there could be no better place to find out 
what we wished to know than the scene of the last conversation 
of Christ with his disciples, before his passion, and on which He 



THE TRUE CHURCH. 309 

instituted tlie sacraraont of tlie Supper, we went tliere and lis- 
tened to His instructions upon tliat most deeply interestin*/- 
and painful occasion ; when, " having loved His own which were 
in the world, He loved them unto the end." Supper beinjr 
ended, He rose, girded himself with a towel, poured water into 
a basin and washed the feet of each one of the disciples, and 
said : " If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye 
also ought to wash one anothek's feet." He then with deep 
grief declared, " one of you shall betray me." Soon after, Judas 
went out. The Savior continued the conversation, and said : 
" By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have 
love one for another T — " I go to prepare a place for you." — " If ye 
love me, keep my commandments." — " Peace I leave with you." — 
" Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." 
— " Herein is ray Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." — 
" If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." — " If 
ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because 
I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
you." — " Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant 
is not greater than his Lord." — " They shall put you out of the 
synayoyues, yea, the time coraeth that whosoever killeth ym 
shall think that he doeth God service." Afterward Jesus lifted 
up his eyes to heaven and prayed. In this prayer he said : 
" This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast .sent." — " They are not of 
the world, even as I am not of the world." — " Sanctify them 
through thy truth, thy word is truth. Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also who shall believe in me through their 
word ; that ?oe all may be one, as thou B'ather art in me and I in 
thee, that they also may be one in us." Before Pilate : "Jesus 
answered, my kingdom is not of this world, else would my ser- 
vants figlit. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
The Apostle John in closing this narrative, says : " These are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of 
God, and that helienny ye might have life through His name." 
John had good reason for writing with this great and single de- 
sign, for on looking back in the book he had been writing, 
we find that he had heard his Master say : '' He that beliuveth 
on the Son hath everlasting hfe ; and he that believeth not 
the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on 
him." — " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness^. 
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish but have eternal life ; for God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have evcrlast- 



310 THE TRUE CHURCH." 

ing life." — " If any man thirst let hira come unto me and drink." — 
" He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that be- 
lieveth on me shall never thirst." — " Him that cometh to me 
I will in nowise cast out." — " He that heareth my word and be- 
lieveth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall 
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death imto life." 
— " I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me, 
though he were dead yet shall he Uve ; whosoever liveth and 
beUeveth on me shall never die." These declarations and many 
more like them John had recorded. They were the reiteration 
of the same truth which seemed to be the central point of all 
the teachings which he had heard in the intervals of the mighty 
acts of Jesus Christ, by which he had proved that life and death 
were entirely at His disposal. We looked through the other 
gospels written by Matthew, Mark and Luke, and found them 
full of this same trutli ; and when we turned to the comments of 
the apostles in their letters, written under the guidance of inspi- 
ration, we found them full of the same thing. Faith in Christ, — 
faith in Christ, — faith in Christ, is the first and last, and sum 
total everywhere. They say it " worketh by love and purifies 
the heart ;" that it is " the fruit of the Spirit ;" that it consti- 
tutes those who possess it into a family ; that it would operate 
in the same manner in all who possessed it, until they should 
" all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the statm^e 
of the fullness of Christ." 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 
[From a7i unjniblished Jlfamisciipt.'] 

In the month of August, 1845, I was relaxing from severe oc- 
cupation, by a tour in Connecticut, and called on Saturday to 
spend the Sabbath with my relative, tlie pastor of the church in 
llampton. In the coui'se of conversation, I learned tliat an Epis- 
copal minister, from a neighboiing town, had delivered several 
leetui'es in Hampton, setting forth the dogmas of higli churchism, 
and was to ])reach again after tlie i-egular service on the next 
Sabbath P.M. I suggested that I might deliver a lecture on the 
same topic in the evening, and it Avas announced accordingly. I 
listened with interest to the discourse of the Episcopal divine, and 
he was so courteous as to attend my lecture in the evening, we 
liaving been politely introduced to each other by a mutual and 
honored friend. My lecture was substantially as follows : 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 311 

LECTURE ON THE TRUE CIIURCTI OF CHRIST. 

Brethren and Friends — In the course of a tour of relaxation 
I had the pleasure of calling on your pastor yesterday. He in- 
vited me to lecture on temperance this evening, but learning in 
conversation, that the question of what is the True Churcli of 
Christ had been brought before you by a clergyman from a 
neighboring town, I preferred as my custom is in my ordinary 
business, to discuss that topic which is for the time exciting spe- 
cial interest. You may think it strange that an editor should 
enter upon such a discussion. It is true that I am neither a the- 
ologian, a polemic, nor a scholastic. I seek rather to be imbued 
with that which so characterizes and distinguishes the people of 
my native State — common sense. This, enlightened by the Bible, 
is generally the best guide to truth on all such matters, as I pro- 
pose to discuss before you. I desire to say also, tiiat I am not only 
a plain but a blunt man. My occupation leads me to deal with 
rougher materials often, than compose this audience, and I fear 
that my habits of thinking, which I cannot throw off for an hour, 
may make me seem severe and unkind, when I really am not so 
at all. In addressing you my object is not to sustain any par- 
ticular sect, but to find ou^ what is truth. If the Church of 
Rome, or England, is really what she claims to be, let us all join 
her, for it can do none of us any good to believe or practice false- 
hood. Let us find the true Church of Christ and unite ourselves 
to it, for there is such a church, and out of its pale there is no 
salvation. It is therefore with deep seriousness that I address 
you to-night, for upon the right understanding of this great sub- 
ject our eternal salvation depends. Allow me then to state 
some of the distinguishing characteristics of the Church of Christ. 
That it is distinguished from all other associations, is plain from 
the nature of the case, and from the declarations of Scripture, 
which everywhere characterizes the Church as a separate and 
" peculiar people." 

One of the peculiarities of the religion of Christ is, that it deals 
with, and lays its claims upon the spirit of man, his intellect, and 
afl'ections. It does not say, as all religions before it had said, Pay 
great sums of money or endure great suffering to procure the 
favor of the gods. It does not command. Make a pilgrimage to 
Mecca or Jerusalem ; swing so many times around the pole, fasten- 
ed by hooks through your back ; hold up your arms until they be- 
come fixed and petrified, so as never to be taken down ; nor cast 
yourself under the wheels of an idol's car : but " give me thy 
heart ;" " believe and thou shalt be saved ;" " the kingdom of God 
is within you." The Apostle Paul addressed a letter thus : " Unto 



812 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified 
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints ;" and " if any man have not 
the S2)irit of Christ he is none of his." Membership in this 
church is obtained therefore not upon external performances, 
but upon the possession of a certain state of the mind, from which 
to be sure all good conduct will proceed. 

Another peculiarity of the religion of Christ is, that it addresses 
itself to men, not as communities, but as individuals. Its com- 
mands, its promises, its threatenings, and its hopes, are addressed 
to each individual man, woman, and child, and each one is re- 
quired for himself to comply with its requisitions, being held as 
fully able to do so, and therefore responsible for himself, and be- 
tween himself and Gk)d alone. It addresses itself to every man 
by himself, whatever his circumstances may be, whether he be 
poor or rich, ignorant or learned, alone in the desert, or among 
the bustling multitudes of a city. It suits his condition, what- 
ever it be, and follows him wherever he goes, as distinctly as if there 
were no other creature on the earth besides himself. " Repent, 
believe, thou art the man," are ever sounded in his ears. This 
recognition of man, as an individual always, and this perfect fitness 
for his case as an individual, whatever it may be, is a very great 
peculiarity of the religion of Christ. Another peculiarity of this re- 
ligion is, that it refuses all merit to our services. Whatever we may 
do, we can merit no blessing. Salvation is a free gift, bestowed 
through the merits of Jesus Christ upon such as exercise the pre- 
scribed affections toward him. Another and most important pe- 
culiarity of the religion of Christ is, that it demands 'purity of 
heart. Other religions have had their foundation and their 
strength in their agreement with the depraved and impure lusts 
of men. But Christ says, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
shall see God," and this purity is of no ordinary character, for 
in illustration of it he says, " He that looketh on a woman to lust 
after her hath committed adultery already," and " He that hateth 
is a murderer." " Nothing that defileth or worketh abomina- 
tion, or maketh a lie," shall in anywise enter the true Church of 
Christ. " Without are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, 
and murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth or maketh 
a lie." 

This purity is especially peculiar, as it is everywhere represent- 
ed as not existing in the common or natural state of human affec- 
tions, but as acquired and received at the time of joining the 
Church, being the associate of faith. Very strong language is 
used on this point. The transition is even termed by Christ be- 
ing " born again." It is described as being " born of the Spirit," 
as being made " new creatures in Christ Jesus," as becoming 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 313 

" dead to the world and alive unto righteousness," and it is said 
of the persons who have this especial state of mind, that they 
exercise a " faith which works by love, and purifies the heart ;" it 
is even said of them that thej^ " dwell in God and God in them." 

Another most remarkable characteristic of the true Church is, 
that its bond of union is benevolence. Other associations (except 
where the affections of this church are present) are chielly bound 
together by selfishness. Some common oi)ject of personal glory, 
emolument, or pleasure, is the principle of cohesion. But love 
for the Master, and love for one another, is the bond of union in 
the Church of Christ. It is the same feeling which drew Christ 
from heaven, and is one of the important features in which the 
disciples are one with Him. 

I will mention but one other pecuharity of the religion of Christ, 
and that is, that it depends solely on its principles for its success. 
It is a mailer of principle. Other religions have been promul- 
gated by war, by proscription, by great combinations, and chica- 
nery. But if a whole nation were compelled by physical force 
to call themselves Christian, the Church of Christ would not 
thereby be enlarged in the least degree. Pen and ink, the voice 
of love, putting forth argument and persuasion, and entreaty : — this 
is " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" and this 
only, from the nature of the case, can extend the Ciiurch of 
Christ. Truth, as it is preached by " them that believe," reaches 
the understanding, the conscience, and the heart of man afrer 
man, and by the blessing of its Author upon it, makes^him a 
" new creature in Christ," uniting him to Christ as a branch is 
united to the vine, and adding him to that Church which is so 
identified with Christ in character and purpose, that He prayed 
thus most remarkably for them to the Father, " That they all 
may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
also may be one in us." The persons for whom this remarkable 
prayer was offered were in the same breath designated as " them 
which shall believe on me.^' 

Behold, then, the true Church of Christ. It is spiritual, it is 
individual, reaching to all possible conditions ; it disclaims all merit 
in its members ; it is composed of pure or holy persons only, who 
have acquired this purity by a great moral renovation ; it is bound 
together by benevolence, and it is extended by the affectionate an- 
nouncement of the truth alone. 

From this statement of facts it is evident that the true Church of 
Christ cannot be perpetuated by the succession of a society. As- 
sociations of men extend to their bodily presence, but nut to their 
hearts. A principle, a state of affections, cannot possibly be 
transmitted by external associations or ceremonies. Suppose the 
14 



314 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

society of the Cincinnati had inchided every patriot of the revo- 
lution, and being so founded, had attempted to perpetuate the 
patriotism of American citizens, in regular succession from the 
revolution, by the admission of members to that society. I 
care not what ceremonies might have been adopted at the ad- 
mission, how painful or pompous soever they might have been, it 
would be idle to tell a New England audience that a man was 
exclusively a patriot, or at all the more a patriot, for having gone 
through with them. If you were to take such an one in Uie act 
of giving " aid and comfort" to the enemies of your coimtry, he 
might protest that he was a patriot by succession, and show his 
certificate of admission to the patriot church, but it would not 
save him from the gallows for one moment. ' What has belong- 
ing to a society to do with your being a good citizen ! A patriot 
by succession forsooth !' would be the contemptuous reply which 
such claims would receive through all the ranks of intelligent New 
England. ' Cheap patriotism this, to be sure. Our fathers had a 
different sort. They got it from God, and it lived in their own 
burning bosoms, not in the record-books of a society.' If you 
were to take a thief, and pour all the waters of the Quinnebaug 
upon him ; if you were to exhaust the fuller's whole stock of soap 
upon him ; if you were to perform never so many manipulations 
upon him ; nay should rivers of oil be poured on his head, would 
his thievish lieart be purified by all this '? If there were exter- 
nal impurity upon him, it would have been washed away, but no 
approaWi would have been made to liis mind. If you were to 
admit him to the church of any denomination, alas, what a melan- 
choly cloud of witnesses there are, that even this would not re- 
move his pollution from him, or make his heart at all better than 
it was before ! 

It is farther evident that admission to an external association, 
whatever it may be, cannot be admission to the true Church of 
Christ. Suppose you admit an impure man to the church with 
never so much ceremony. Suppose you make him a deacon, an 
elder, a bishop, nay a pope, and repeat your ceremonies with in- 
creasing solemnity at every stage, and with full certificates of all 
this, he approaches that great gate of pearl over which it is writ- 
ten, " Nothing that defileth or maketh a lie can enter." What 
will it all avail ? Your certificates would not begin to reach the 
emergency. They would be but so much waste paper. They 
cannot force a bad man into heaven, nor afford him the least as- 
sistance. What ha\ e such things to do with admission to that 
Avorld of truth and holiness ? 

Again : it is evident lliat there are no ranks, no orders in the 
true Church of Christ. The highest possible honor and dignity 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 315 

are conferred on each one upon his admission. He is made a 
brother of Christ, a cliild of God, an heir of glory immortal. He 
is pronounced a king and a priest, and has the promise of being 
made like Christ, and finally to see as he is seen, and know as 
he is known. What orders can there be above tliis " chosen ge- 
neration, this royal priesthood, this holy nation ?" We have not 
only plain reason but the express declaration of Christ, who said 
expHcitly in reference to this very point, " I am your Master and 
all ye are brethren." The controversy therefore between Episco- 
palians and Presbyterians about three orders, or two orders, and 
with some Congregationalists about one order, is all a controversy 
about nothing. 

We see in this, too, that no portion of the members of this 
church can confer prerogatives upon any other portion. Every 
one is authorized in the highest possible degree ; and what he 
shall do depends not on the license or ordination of his brethren, 
but upon the commands of the Great Master as indicated in his 
word and providence, and judged of by each disciple for him- 
self. It is obvious farther, that it is not altogether safe to ti'ust 
ourselves to any external association of men merely because they 
claim to be exclusively the true Church of Chiist. There is 
danger possibly, in these claims, of setting up an opposition to 
the true Church. There is no foundation for the Church but 
Jesus Christ, and if men attempt to lay the foundation of tradi- 
tion or succession, they do plainly reject Christ. He, as master, 
admits every member to his church upon the possession of the 
required state of affections. Woe lo that church and its active 
agents, then, who shall assume to do this in his name and to admit 
members to his church, and that, too, without the character which 
he requires ! Claims are not possessions any more here than else- 
Avhere ; and it is possible, by joining those who make the highest 
claims, by that very act to reject Chiist and his true Church. If 
we fail to unite with the true Church and to come in " througli the 
door," our joining all other churches will be in vain and may be 
much worse than in .vain. If,' tlierefore, any association of men 
proclaim itself the Cliurch of Chiist exchisivelv, its claim is obvi- 
ously false, and gives much reason to suspect tliat it lias no part 
nor lot in the matter ; but is a rival and opposition church — an 
anli-christ, though it may include some true, but in this matter 
deluded disciples. Finally, there is no such thing as " uncove- 
nanted mercy." There are some persons who, while they claim 
that their chui'ch possesses the monopoly of covenant mercy, do 
yet in their benevolence hope that some others maj^ be saved by 
uncovenanted mercy. They seem to have an idea of shreds and 
surplus pieces in God's mercy. But there can be no sucli thing. 



316 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

All who are received into the true Church are received upon the 
same plan and in the same way and by the same Great Adminis- 
trator. They are received upon their compliance with the icrms 
which are proposed — with the covciumt which God has sealed in 
the blood of his Son. If there was other mercy, why was not 
the covenant enlar!i;ed to include it? No, the invitation of the 
Author of salvation is, " Come unto mc, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " Him that cometh unto 
me I will in no wise cast out." All Avho accept these ])rc>posals 
are in covenant with Christ ; they who refuse will tind no mercy 
out of the covenant. Uncovenanted mercy is eternal death. 
How wonderful is the delusion which talks of nncorcuanted mercy, 
"which dreams that penitent believers in Jesus Christ aie out of 
covenant with Him because out of covenant with them ; and that 
impenitent men may reject Christ and still " climb up" through 
their church into heaven. 

Now I am sure I shall be pardoned — nay, that courtesy de- 
mands that I should take some notice of the propositions which 
weie submitted to vou tliis afternoon ; though 1 fear, from the 
character of those propositions, that I shall seem to be severe 
upon the gentleman who has put them forth. But I have no 
feeling of severity. He will doubtless allow me to practice the 
frankness which he so properly eulogized at the opening of this 
discourse. He urged that in all matters, and especially in those 
of religion, we desire sfabiliti/. Certainly he was right. But it 
can hardl}' be fair to put forth a general proposition of this sort, 
and then claim to one side its whole popularity. All men who 
think with the gentleman about the desirableness of stability, are 
not therefore to adopt everything else which he said and join his 
church. But he attempted to carry you with him on this point 
by a refej'ence to the instability of New England religion. He 
charged it in no scrupulous terms as being " one thing to-day 
and another to-morrow" — ever changing and uncertain and so 
divided by warring opinions that no stability is to be found any- 
where. I thought he must be a man of courage who could pro- 
nounce such allegations against the opinions of New England in 
the midst of a New iMigland audience. The religion of New- 
England unstable and divided ! Why, it has been her reproach 
that from the beginning to this dav, she holds the same blue, 
puritanic doctrines. Here Congregalionalists, Baptists, Method- 
ists, and Evangelical Episcopalians, all agree in the great funda- 
mental doctrines of the true Church of Christ. They differ about 
the quantity of water to be used in baptism, and some other 
points of similar, and some of still greater importance. But upon 
the great truths of the Church there is not a thinking community 



T II E T R U F. C II rj II C II O I" f; II It I S T . 317 

upon the f;i''C of earth so united and so unclianifeaMe as tin; New 
IviLflandc.rs, wliifdi tlu; {gentleman tliinks lu- hfliolds in sucli a sea 
ol troubles. Beautiful, ever-faithful N<'.w Enirland, Jk»\v art thou 
nnisunderstood and nnisrepresented ! Thy p(race flows pi;rennial 
like thy lovely rivers. The afjrreement of Ntnv England, too, is 
something very different from the ereed of O'Connell — " I believe 
all that the Church believes." It is the agreement of men who, 
having thought f!ach one for himself, find afterward that they all 
tliink alike. This is a livinfj faith. To believe as the Church be- 
lieves is to have no faith, ac(;ording to ;my New England sense. 
Make a proposition to a Yankee, and tell him the Church believes 
it, and therefore he must, and he will be sure to reply, "Well, 
stranger, I can't believe that way, })\ii prove il, and then I guess I 
can believe it." Yet to such a faith in " tlie Church " did the 
preacher, this afternoon, all along intimate, (for he did not exactly 
say it), New England rniist go for deliverance from uncertainty. 
Go to th(; E[»iscopal Cliurch for stability and agreement! Why, in 
that church are pent up all possible shades of theological doc- 
trine which are to be found on earth, from thorough Calvinism to 
the e.vtremest point of Unitarianism. An hundred sects war in 
her bosom, making up at this moment the most violent theologi- 
cal controversy which is to be found in all Christendom. To the 
Episcopal Church ! which (allcnv me to say the exact truth) 
agrees about nothing, except about an old hc>ok and some old 
clothed, or rather an old fashion for clothes. Even this worthless 
unity the Church cannot maintain, for in the diocese of Exeter, in 
England, there is a rent about the clothes, and as to the book, 
there is no more real agreement about its meaning than about the 
meaning of the Bible which the book was given to make plain. 
He must be a man of strange views who can, just at this time, 
propose that New England should turn to Episcopacy for re- 
pose. 

The great burden of tlio gentleman's discourse was the want 
of an authorilalive interpreter of the religion of Christ, something 
which should make us certain what were the truths and the 
institutions of Christ and his apostles. I agree most fully that 
we should follow these great leaders. As to the inHtilulioriH of 
the apostles, they were clearly Congregationalism. The form of 
the primitive churches was the same with the form of the New 
England churches, except that there was in them considerably 
less of form, and circumstance, and hierarchical arrangement, 
than even in your simple churches. I can bring you Episcopal 
authority for this, and if any man, woman or child, whose mind 
is not perverted, will find any such thing as a diocesan bishop in 
the Acts of the Apostles, 1 will incur any such forfeit as is com- 



318 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

mon in New England. Certain it is, that in those da)'s every- 
thing was done bj'^ the democratic mass of tlie brotherhood. 
When an apostle was to be ordained to fill the vacancy created 
by the apostasy of Judas, the brethren did it all ; and when the 
great apostle was to be sent to the Gentiles, he was first sent to 
a lay disciple in Damascus, who, in performing the miracle of 
opening his eyes, laid hands on him, then baptized him, and 
. straightway he went forth a finished preacher, not seeing anj^ one 
of the apostles, according to his own statement, until three years 
afterward. In those days all were prtiachers, all administrators 
of sacraments, breaking bread from house to house. There is no 
record in the New Testament of any such thing as laying hands 
on a disciple, to authorize or qualify him for these duties. The 
primitive churches, the apostles included, were democratic assem- 
blies of equal brethren, differing only in gifts and graces, and so 
prepared not for difterent orders but for different services. 

The necessity of an authoritative standard of apostolic faith 
and practice, beyond what is now generally possessed in New 
England, the gentleman urged, until he declared that " any opin- 
ion not maintained from tlie apostles down to the present time 
may be rejected." I give his own words, for it was so strange a 
proposition that I took care to wiite it down at the moment. 
" Any opinion not maintained from the apostles down to the 
present time may be rejected !" Of course the Bible is no rule 
of faith, anytliing which is there may be rejected. The Bible 
ceases to be authority. Could the gentleman have been aware 
that while standing up as a Christian, he was preaching thor- 
oughgoing deism ? No principle of Thomas Paine ever struck 
out the Bible more effectually. More than that, it strikes out all 
truth, for there is nothing, no one fundamental or important 
doctrine of the Church of Christ, which has been so held. The 
historic fact of the mission and death of Chiist may have been 
believed all the way down, but not one of all the doctrines 
taught by him or his apostles. So earnest was tlie gentleman 
for authority, that he smote out at a blow all authority. Think 
of it. Nothing is to be believed, but nothing! Such is the end 
of philosophy turning away from the word of God to look for 
authority. 

To illustrate the necessity of an authoritative interpreter, the 
gentleman said, " no man can interpret for his neighbor, and 
therefore not for himself." Then, how are we to obtain this so 
much desired interpreter ? Why, by getting a great many 
together. A great many non-interpreters make an interpreter, 
just as a great many ciphers make a thousand. That seemed to 
be the arithmetic of this philosophy, but it is not according to 



r n E TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 319 

tlie .iritlimelic of New Engljind. Tn New Enp^land, any quan- 
tity of iKttliings make only nothing. 

Hut wliat is tliis interpreter whicli is called authoritative, and 
upon which alone we are to rely ? It is the historic succession 
of the church, or rather of the priesthood, for the whole au- 
thority is in them. During twelve centuries of the eighteen 
since Christ, the succession has been wrapped in the Church of 
Home, that black cloud of locusts whicli for centuries shut out 
all light, and shut the world in to a condition of ignorance called 
a[)propriately "the dark ages," During centuries of this dark- 
ness, the priesthood, with a few exceptions, was an order 
superior only in its abominable wickedness. It was filled up 
with adulterers, robbers, and murderers, the most odious who 
have ever disgraced and trodden down humanity ; haters of all 
purity and of all truth, such as is found in the Bible. These 
monsters constituting the hierarchy, in general had no Bible, 
and could not have read it if they had possessed it ; yet to this 
congregation of earth's consummate ignorance and wickedness, 
to " the mystery of iniquity drunk with the blood of the saints," 
the intelligent and virtuous pojjulation of New England are to be 
turned over to learn what they are to believe of the pure and 
holy gospel of God our Savior. Again, I say, he is a. man of 
unusual courage who dares to submit such propositions to a New 
England audience. It would be much more rational to say that 
tlie convicts of your State-prison are the only authoritative 
interpreters of Connecticut law, and that any opinion may be 
rejected which they have not always held. I care not how 
man)' hands, reeking with pollution and blood, every one of these 
Komish priests niiglit have had upon his head ; it made the suc- 
cession of hell nothing better. The true Church of Christ, 
and the pure doctiines of Christ, were always their abhorrence ; 
themselves abhorred of God and all good beings. 

But I cannot perceive the necessity which was so eloquently 
urged upon us. What need have we of an authoritative inte?'- 
]>rcter ? We have the very loords of Christ, and his apostles. 
They npeak to us as directly as to the people who heard them 
eighteen hundred years ago. We have heard them ourselves. 
What need have we of an interpreter? Suppose a council 
should be called to interpret what I say to-night, and that coun- 
cil should tender the result of their labors to you. You would 
certainly say, " We have no need of your interpretation. We 
heard Mr. llale ourselves; we know what he said ; we under- 
stood what he meant, your help can do us no good." Unless an 
interpreter can express himself in clearer language than God, 
unless he understands the construction of the human mind better 



320 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

than the Being who constructed it, \inless, in short, he is God's 
superior, his services are not wanted. We have heard God 
speaking to us, and, blessed be His name, He has spoken in a clear 
and distinct manner, and we understand Him. He said, " Come 
unto me, all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved, for I am God, 
and there is none else," and we understood Him. He said, 
" God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life," and we understood the blessed announcement. He 
said, " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord doth 
pity them that fear Him," and we understood it and were 
strengthened. He said, " If any man lack wisdom, let him 
ask it (of the Church ? no) of God, who giveth liberally and up- 
braideth not," and we understood it and learned where to go 
when in doubt. He said, " The meek will he guide in judgment, 
the meek will he teach his way," and " if any man will do 
his will he shall know of the doctrine," and we understood 
it and learned wliere to go for an authoritative interpreter. The 
interpretations of councils and authoritative books, why, the)' do 
but mystify and confuse the clear Word of God. Every council 
requires, at least, two other councils to interpret its interpret- 
inys. The whole thing is groundless and preposterous. They 
wlio adopt any other rule of faith than the Bible, and any other 
authoritative interpreter than every man's own understanding, 
guided by the Holy Ghost, do but reject God for His want of 
authority, and bring in men to make up the deficiency. 



There are many more tiuths which follow from this view 
of the true Church of Christ, which there was neither time nor 
propriety in discussing upon the occasion at Hampton, but 
which are nevertheless of the highest importance. It follows 
that the churches of all denominations ai"e mere voluntary asso- 
ciations, havmg in their associated capacity no covenant witli 
Christ, or commission to e.xercise autliority in his name. So far 
as such associations are composed of true disciples, i\\e\ are visi- 
bilities of the true Ciiurch, but hypocrites by uniting with these 
associations do not become members of the true Church in any 
sense. Such associations, when simple in their organization, ai'e 
favorable to the piety of the members and to the extension of the 
ti'ue Church, and so approved of Christ. But his coirvant is 
with iixUviduals, not ivith masses, and if these take the hierar- 
chi'-al form, and assume to lord it o\er God's heritage, tliey are 
a curse to the true Church and an abhorrence to God. Church 
associations may manage their own affairs according to their own 
plan, provided that plan does not contravene God's claims ; but 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 321 

let them not assuiriR to do it by divine right, or in the name of 
the Lord, for they have no such charter. They are none of 
them, nor all of them together, the Clnirch of Christ or a branch 
of it. Too often these associations have many in them who are 
not members of the Church of Christ at all, and to whom He will 
say at the last day, " I never knew you, depart from me, 
ye workers of ini(iuity." Nay, it is much to be feared that 
many such associations have not one member of the real Church 
in their whole number, and if one should by the grace of God 
become so, he would thereby become, perhaps, the object of tlie 
concentrated hatred of his brethren. What monstrous arrogance 
is it, then, for presbyteries, synods, conventions, or councils, to 
assume, as they generally do, that they sit " as courts of Jesus 
Christ!" What ignorance of the whole matter do these reverend 
bodies exhibit, to whatever denominations they belong, and with 
what disapprobation must the Head of the Church and its only 
Lord look down upon such assumptions of His prerogatives by 
the worms of earth ! How can such men condemn the Pope for 
pretending to be the vicegerent of God when they take precisely 
the same attitude themselves ! When men have dared this 
■wickedness, what abominable violations of the laws of the Church 
have they not gone on to commit, in fearless disregard of that 
dreadful anathema, " He that olFendeth one of these little ones 
that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were 
hanged about his neck and he drowned in the depths of the 
sea." If men are bent on persecuting the members of Christ's 
Church, let them beware how they add the heinous aggravation 
of doing it in the name of«('hrist. 

Farther, wc may learn what church organizations are lawful, 
and how far a member of the Church of Christ may commit him- 
self to the control of others. It must not be to an extent whi(;h 
■will embarrass him in his obligations to act individually in the 
performance of any duty to which the Head of the Church may 
call him. His obligations to (Christ are paramount to all others. 
He must keep the right to comply with the great evangelical com- 
mand to proclaim the gospel everywhere, to perform all other 
duties according to the dictates of his own conscience, always 
careful not to disturb or interrupt his brethren in the exercise of 
the same liberty. All governments and all subscriptions which 
assume more than this, are in violation of the fundamental law, 
" Call no man master on earth," and so null and void. 

We see that the powers of church ofHcers are derived from the 
church, and extend as far as power is confcm'd hi/ the association, 
and no farther, provided always, as above stated, that the. obli- 
gations of the individual members, to Christ, are not infringed. 



322 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

The authority of church officers can never be an authority over 
and above the society itself. I use the words, church, association, 
society, and congregation, as all of the same import. The New 
Testament uses the names of service, rather than authority, in 
de:-ignating the officers of the primitive churches. Minister and 
deacon both imply service only, and bishop nothing more than the 
proper business of a committee man to " oversee " affairs. One 
appointed to service acquiies certain rights from that appointment. 
He acquires the right to do what he is appointed to do. If a soci- 
ety elect a preacher, they confer on him the right to preach, and 
obligate themselves to sustain him in his appointment. It Avould 
be a violation of his rights, or his authority, if you please, for 
any other member of the church to take possession of the pulpit 
and exclude him. The same rule applies to the chorister, the 
organist, the deacons, the sexton even. Their services may be 
ditferent in importance and in honor, but the authority for them 
all is received from the same source, and sustained on the 
same principles, and with regard to them all the arrangement 
should be entirely voluntary with both parties, as to its com- 
mencement and its continuance, unless it is thought expedient to 
appoint for a specific time. In that case, a removal cannot with 
propriety be made, except on proof of distinct malpractice in 
office, or failure of service. 

Again, we ma}' understand sacraments more clearly by seeing 
distinctly what is the nature of the voluntary associations called 
churches. There is no mysterious efficacy about them, drawn from 
divine right or prerogative in the administrator or in the body 
within which they ai'e administered.- They are illustrations of 
truth, but not truth itself, and in no sense themselves the fact 
which they are intended to commemorate or set forth. All saving 
efficacy is in Christ, through the Spirit. The benefit of sacra- 
ments is individual, and depends on the state of mind of each one 
for himself, so that around the same table there may be some who 
eat of the same supper to their spiritual growth and progress in 
salvation, while others eat to the increase of their sin and con- 
demnation. The efficacy is all of faith ; not faith in the sacra- 
ment, or the church, or the minister, but in Christ alone. If 
Christ is remembered by the aid of the supper, so as to be more 
loved and more confided in than before, then is the sacrament 
effectual toward salvation, and whether received from an ordained 
minister in the midst of an organized church, or from any other 
brother in an occasional meeting of Christians, or by himself 
alone, the blessing may be expected equally, if only sought 
aright. It was upon this plan of illustrating and enforcing truth, 
that pictures were introduced. But man, who loves darkness. 



THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 323 

soon stopped in his tlioughts at the picture, and worshiping 
that, lost all truth and became an idolater. Not less idolatrous 
are the superstitious notions which many Protestants, even among 
Congregationalists, entertain respecting the sacraments of the 
supper and baptism. To look to them, as possessing in themselves 
some mysterious efficacy, is as much idolatry as to look to a pic- 
ture or a graven image in the same way. 

We see the phrase " visible church " generally conveys a false 
impression, as the true Church of Christ consists of individuals 
alone, so that Church can only be yisible in the persons of the 
same individuals. The true visible Church is composed of saints, 
and the}^ are visible whenever they go about in the footsteps of 
their Master, doing good. We see that true discipleship, and 
that alone, entitles a man to pro/ess to be a disciple, and espe- 
cially by partaking of the supper, and that it is not doing what is 
commonly termed "joining the church," which confers it, though 
order in ascertaining true discipleship — provided it is not made 
too much of — is proper. I may say here, that the Baptists who 
exclude from communion those who have not been immersed, re- 
ject the true doctrine of the Church ; and their opponents, who 
can see this wrong, and who still make sprinkling and joining the 
church essential prerequisites to communion, are guilty of the 
very thing which they condemn. Neither of these is essential to 
salvation, and so cannot lawfully be made essential to commu- 
nion. 

We see that popes, cardinals, bishops, presbyters, ministers, 
and all, by whatever name they may be called, whose especial 
calling it is to do service in the Churcli, are officers in a voluntary 
association, and, after all, nothinfj hut men. There is nothing 
mysterious about any of them. They possess no special powers 
from Christ which they can confer on others ; nay, no special 
powers which have not been conferred by the associations among 
whom they labor. They have no right to monopolize the preach- 
ing of the gospel, or the administration of its ordinances, and 
have no more or better right to do these things than any body 
else, except the right which exists in the propriety of each parti- 
cular case, and the appointment of the ptiople. The local settled 
pastors of the churches of our day are not only of no " divine in- 
stitution," but they are not after any pattern recorded in the New 
Testament as belonging to the primitive church. The arrange- 
ment, however, seems admirably adapted to our times, right and 
propel-, provided it does not attempt to monopolize service, but 
leaves every disciple pressed with the duty of preaching the gos- 
pel by the way-side, in the house, the conference meeting, and 
even the pulpit, if Providence points to that as his duty. 



324 THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

AVo may loani farther that tlio phrase ■• saored desk," growing 
out of the idea of being useil by saeied men : the C(Miinion notion 
amoiiLT Protestants, that a meeting-house is ehanged in its chamc- 
ter. and made holv bv consecration, or that anv material thinjr 
can possess spiritual ettioacy. is superstition and idolatry. If God 
has made no promises to associations of men. He has made none 
to the houses they build. Tlie common notiiw that God is more 
present in a meeting-house than elsewhere, and that prayei-s and 
praises offered there are more etficacious than elsewhere, is in 
contradiction to the whole teaching of the New Testament. 
God directed the building of a temple for the use of a national 
church, and made himself visiblv present theie, but the time has 
come when Gerizim and Jerusalem, and all places, are to he for- 
gotten in the grand idea that God is a Spirit, and must be wor- 
shiped in spirit and in truth. Protestants pity Catholics for 
tliinking that mass must be said in the chinr/t to be effectual, and 
by the priest, and vet induliife these same superstitions all their lives. 
I am afraid that three-fourths of all the consecrations of houses in 
New England are no better than Romish superstition, and a rank 
offense to God, especially when offered by a people whom He has 
blessed with such abundant light. The New Testament thoroughly 
forbids the limiting of God to groves, mountains, or houses, as the 
places more than others of his presence, even in its highest and most 
gracious extents. I doubt, in fact, whether it is strictly lawful, even 
with the most intelligent and spiritual views, to consecrate or de- 
dicate i\ house to God and his worship exclusively, otherwise 
than as we dedicate all we have to Him. What right have Chris- 
tians to invest great sums of money in a house, and then shut it up 
to worship entirely, more than they have to shut themselves away 
from usefulness to devotion ? A house is a place for special conve- 
nience for men, not for the special presence of God. The idea 
that God is in the house is just the idea which a heathen man h;\s 
about his idol. He does not generally think that the stone is God, 
but that God is in it, and why not as much in a hewn stone or 
carved block, as in brick walls, or wooden pews ? 

Finallv, we see that people, now as well as formerly, "are too 
superstitious." Thev love to be superstitious. They are dissa- 
tisfied with a religion altogether spiritual, with a God altogether 
a Spirit, with a Savior whose mission was entirely to purify the 
heirts of His people. The human heart longs for something ma- 
tf-i-d on which to rely: — something besides meeting God spirit- 
nail v, and dwelling in Him. The superstitions of Konu^ ami of 
P:ig.uiism are only cultivations of the natural propensities of the 
hiim*^..! heart, propensities which grow rank and strong without 
cultivation. How great was the work which Christ undertook ! 



THE CONGREGATIONAL POLITY. 325 

How entirely unlike that which had been undertaken by any man 
before ilim ; and how blf;shed are they wlio, wa-shed and redeem- 
ed by liim, haVe been admitted to His church, received into cov- 
enant with Him, and made joint heirs with Him to an inheritance 
wiiich is incorruptible and undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserv- 
ed in heavea for them ! 



THE DISTINCTIVE PRINX'IPLES OF COXGREGATIOXAL 
CHURCH POLITY COMPARED WITH OTHER DE- 
NOMINATIONS. 

[/Vom an unpuOlisfied Manuscript. '\ 

As the ricjhts and duties of the church member are essentially 
modified by the polity of the church to which he belongs, it is 
impottant to him, and also to the church, that he should under- 
stand the principles of that polity. The government of a church, 
like any other government, is a practical tiling: it defines relations, 
distributes powers, pre.scribes duties. And these vary with the 
character of the system. It is therefore obvious, that though all 
believers, considered simply as disciples of Christ, have the .same 
duties to discharge, yet considered as subject to this or that 
particular ecclesia->tical organization, their duties, as well as their 
privileges, may be quite diverse. As the active duties of a citi- 
zen of a republic are not the same as those of the passive sub- 
ject of an oligarchy, — being more numerous, more responsible, 
more noble ; so, under the various schemes of church order, 
there is more or less for the laity to do, or to submit to, in the 
management of affairs, as tue .schemes have more or less the cha- 
racter of free institutions. 

1. Congregational church polity is distinguished from the Pro- 
testant or Methodist Episcopal Church, by the principle that all 
Christ's servants in the miiii.stry of the gospel are erpial in rank. 

The preeminence of one servant of our Lord over another ap- 
pears to be inconsistent with the genius of Christianity : for He 
has said, " The princes of the Gentiles e.verci.se dominion over 
them, and they that are great e.xercise authority upon them ; but 
it shall not be so amongst you." Matt. xx. 25, 2G. " One is your 
master, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren." Matt, xxiii. 8. 
The Apostle Peter assumed not this superiority — " the preHhifters 
who are among you I exhort, who am also a presh'/tfr. hVed 
the Hock of God whith is au.ong you. taking the ouersifjht not 
by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
mind : neither as beint; lords over God's herita're, but ensamples to 
the flock." 1 Peter v. 2, 3. The identity of the terms Presbyter 



326 THE CONGRKGATIONAL POLITY. 

and Bishop is obvious on the very f;ieo of the apostolical writings ; 
the bishops bein<,^ caWed prcsbi/iers, ami the preshi/tcrs l)ishops. [n 
Acts x.\. the same poi-sons \Yho, at the 17th verse, are termed 
elders or pirsbi/tcrs,' m\\ in the 'JSth verse, called oirrsars or 
bishops. In his epistle to Titus, Paul, after havino; declared it to 
have been his design, in leaving the evangelist in Crete, that ho 
should ordain clJcrs in every city, at once proceeds to onunierate 
some of the principal qualifications by which they should be distin- 
guished, and in the n\idst of the recittU, he says, " for a bishop 
must be blameless," etc. — Tit. i. 5-7. 

As such superiority is unscriptunil, so it is found to be useless. 
In those communions where such gradations are acknowledged, 
peace is not secured by concession, but rather discord. The evils 
arising from ambition, pride, and tyranny, the natural fruits of such 
ascendencv, are far more destructive to the interests of true reli- 
gion than the dillerences of opinion which equality jn-oduces ; di- 
versity of judgment may be silenced, but cannot be prevented by 
an appeal to authority. 

2. Congregational church polity is distinguished from Episco- 
pacy and Presbyterianism by the principle, that the only organ- 
ized church it owns is a particular church or con(frc(/ation of be- 
lievers statedly worshiping in ouc place. National churches, like 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Presbi/teriaii Church, includ- 
ing manv particular churches, and governed by general otiicers, 
irresponsible to the brotherhood, have no place in the Congrega- 
tional system. " The plan pui-sued by the apostles seems to have 
been," says Archbishop Whateley, " to establish a great number 
of small (in comparison with most modern churches) distinct and 
independent conununities . . . occasionally conferring with 
the brethren in other churches, but owing no submission to 
the rulers of any other church, or to any central or common 
authority, e.xcept to the apostles themselves," whose oflice was 
extraordinary, and but for a limited time. 

Tins may bo contirmed by an appeal to the New Testament. 
Look at the superscription of the epistle to the church of Coiinth. 
Corinth was in the province of Acliaia. In that province there 
were other churches besides that in the city of Corinth. If then, 
a national church hail existed, like the Episcopal or Presbyterian 
Church of the present dav. the epistle would have been address- 
ed to the Church of Achaia. But, in truth, the independence of 
the cluuch at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, anil but a few miles 
distant from the city, is directly recognized by the apostle, Rom. 
xvi. 1. He also sjieaks of " the churches of God iii Judca," 1 
Thes. ii. 14, " the churches of Galatia," Gal. i. 2. And John 
speaks of "the sercn churches which are in Asia," Rev. i. 11. 



T H K C O N G R K G A T I N A L POLITY. .j'27 

Oiiurcli history fiilly sustains these interpretations. Mosheim, 
in Ills (Jftrnmontarios on tlie afTuirs of the Christians, says, " Ai- 
thou;(li all the churches were, in the first ages of Christianity, 
united tojrijther in one common Vjond of faith and love, and were 
in every respect ready to pHimote the interest and welfare of each 
other hy a reciprocal interchanj^e of jrood oflices ; yet, with regard 
to government and internal economy, every individual church con- 
sidered itself as an independent community, none of them ever 
looking, in these respects, beyond the circle of its own rnemhers 
for assistance, or recognizing any sort of external influence or 
authority. Neither in the New T<;stament, nor in any ancient doc- 
ument whatever, do we find anything recorded, whence it might 
be inferred that any of the minor churclies wan^ at all depen- 
dent on, or looked up for direction to, those of greater magnitude 
or consequence ; on the contrary, several things occur therein 
which put it out of doubt that every one of them enjoyed tlie 
same rights, and was considered as being on a footing of the most 
perfect equality with the rest." Tertullian tells us expressly, in 
his time, that the churches were free and equal in rank and au- 
thority. 

Gibbon lias truly said, "The (Christian) societies which were 
instituted in the cities of the itoman em[>ire were united only by 
the ties of faith and chaiity. Every society formed within itself 
a separate and independent republic ; and, although the most dis- 
tant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly 
intercourse by letters and deputatif)ns, the Christian world was 
not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative assem- 
bly." 

.'{. Congregational church polity is distinguished from the fore- 
mentioned systems by the principle Ihai all chardt i)()Vier reaides 
in the church ilaelf, and not in the church, oJficcrH : and resides in 
each particular church, directly and originally, by virtue of the 
expressed or implied compact of its members, and not habitually 
or by virtue of any authority derived by succession from somtj 
higher body, ccclesi;istical or clerical. Bishop Beveridge, in 
commenting upon Matthew xviii., tells the laity, if any one 
trespass against them they must tell it to the clergy. The Pres- 
byterian Church directs the same thing to be told to the ses.sion, 
a body of ruling elders, charged with the spiritual government of 
the congregation. Plan of Gov., ch. x. § G. Are we not com- 
manded by CJhrist, if a brother trespass against us, to take certain 
steps to gain him, and if those fail, to "tell it to the church?" 

Of the design of our Lord to establish what should be empha- 
tically a social rdiyion, "a fellowship" or "communion of 
saints," " there can be," says Archbishop Whately, " I think, no 



328 THE CONGREGATIONAL POLITY. 

.doubt in the mind of any reflecting reader of our sacred books. 
Besides our Lord's general promise of ' coming into and dwelling 
in any man who should love him and keep his sayings,' there is 
a distinct promise also of an especial presence in any assembly, 
even if ' two or tliree are gathered together in his name.' Besides 
the general promises made to prayer — to the prayer of the indi- 
vidual 'in the closet,' there is a distinct promise also to 'those 
who shall agree together touching something they shall ask.' 
And it is in conformity with His own institution that Christians have 
ever since celebrated what they designate as emphatically the 
cominunion, by meeting together to break bread in commemora- 
tion of His redemption of his people. His design, in short, man- 
ifestly was to adapt his religion to the social principles of man's 
nature, and to bind his disciples, throughout all ages, to each 
other by those ties of mutual attachment, sympathy and coopera- 
tion, which, in every human community and association, of what- 
ever kind, are found so powerful." The archbishop then pro- 
ceeds to consider how much is implied in the constituting of a 
commwidty, and what are the inherent properties and universal 
character naturally and necessarily belonging to any regularly 
constituted society as such, for whatever purpose formed. And 
he concludes that it belongs to the very essence of a community, 
that it should have ojftcers, rules, and power of admitting and ex- 
cluding persons as riiemhers. These principles of common sense 
were acted upon by the first churches, under the immediate di- 
rection of our Lord and his apostles. They elected their officers, 
Acts vi. 2-G ; received their members, Rom. xiv. 1 •, dealt with 
offenders. Matt, xviii. 17 ; Gal. vi. 1 ; excluded the impenitent,. 
1 Cor. V. 4, 5 ; and restored those who repented, 2 Cor. ii. 6-8. 
If all chuich power was vested in the brotherhood, in primitive 
times, it is too late to question the wisdom of continuing the 
power in the same hands, in this enlightened age. 

4. Congregational church polity is distinguished from strict 
independency by the principle of association or conference of 
churches. 

It has been already shown that the first churches, though in- 
dependent, were united by the ties of faith and charity. This 
is seen by their mutual salutations: Rom. xvi. 16; 1 Cor. xvi. 
19 ; 1 Pet. V. 13 : in their consultations by delegates or messen- 
gers, Acts XV. pas. ; 2 Cor. viii. 23-24 ; Phil. ii. 29 : by pecu- 
niary contributions. Acts xi. 20-30 ; 2 Cor. viii. 9 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1- 
4 : byletteisof commendation, Rom. xvi. 1-22; 2 Cor. iii. 1 ; Col. 
iv. 10. 

Association of churches is highly important, and must take 
place, in as far as religion prospers among them. If they are 



THE CONGREGATIONAL POLITY. 329 

guided 1)}^ the Word of God, they will have (he same end in view, 
and consequently must be united. But in order to its beintr bene- 
ficial it must he voluntarif. As love is the perfect and only bond by 
wiiich the membeisof a single church are cormected, this is suf- 
ficient for uniting different churches. Love alone can produce 
useful cooperation amongst them. Considering the relation in 
which they stand to each other, it is highly important that, by 
mutual good offices, they should cultivate brotherly love. This 
may be done by their giving and receiving advice ; by their pray- 
ing for each other, especially when anything difficult or impoitant 
occurs.; by their joining to promote the spread of the gospel; by 
their sending messengers to one another, as we find the apostolic 
churches did, 2 Cor. viii. 23 ; by their communicating each 
other's necessities, and by many things similar. Such correspond- 
ence is calculated to have the happiest effects, while it allows the 
most perfect liberty and independence to each church. 

5. Congregational church polity is distinguished from that 
novel scheme which would supersede the pastoral office and a 
stated minislry. 

It is doubtless true that every Christian man who understands 
the truth should teach it ; especially that truth which is essentially 
connected with salvation. Still the sacred writings always dis- 
tinguish between ministers and believers generally, between the 
pastors and the flo(;k, the teachers and the taught. " To all the 
saints which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons," Phil, 
i. 1. " Let him that is taught communicate to him that teacheth 
in all good things," Gal. vi. 6. " Even so hath the Lord ordained 
tliat they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel," 1 
Cor. i.x. 14. " If all were teachers, where were the taught? If 
all were pastors, where were the tiock'? If the body were the 
eye, where were the hearing ?" The gifted brethren in the church 
at Corinth possessed remarkable and miraculous powers, and the 
apostle Paul has given directi(jns for the exercise of their special 
and supernatural endowments, 1 Cor. xiv. 31 ; but these are not 
possessed in the present day. 

" It does not follow," says the learned Ncander, " that all the 
members of the church were destined to the ordinary office of 
teaching ; there is a great distinction between a regular capability 
of teaching, always under the control of him who possessed it, and 
an outpouring (like prophecy or the gift of tongues) proceeding 
fVom a sudden inspiration, and accompanied with a peculiar and 
elevated, but tiansient state of mind. On such transient excite- 
ments, care for the maintenance, propagation and advancement 
of clear religious knowledge could not be made safely to depend." 
Although all Christians must be taught only by one heavenly 



S30 THE CONGREGATIONAL POLITY. 

(riiido, yot, ivgjird (o the wonknoss of Iniman naturo. ■which is 
(lostinod to koop tlie troasuros of heaven in eartlien vessels, made 
it requisite that persons should never be wanting in the Church 
who were peculiarly qualified constantly to set before then- breth- 
ren their relation to the common (ruiile and Redeemer of all. 
Such a capability of expounding presupposed a cert^uu cultiva- 
tion of intellect, a certnin clearness and acuteness of thought, and 
a certain power of communicating its impressions to others, which, 
when tlu>y were present, and penetrated by the power of the 
Spirit of God. became the gift of teaching. For this reasonable 
and Divine ordinance the Congregatiiinal churches pleail. regardin'^" 
the maintenance of the Christian ministry in an adequate degree 
of learning, as one of their special cares, that the cause of the 
gospel may be both honorably sustained and constantly promoted. 
6. The Congregational church polity is distinguished from the 
system of the Baptist churches by the principle of the right of 
believing parents to dedicate their infant children to God in 
baptism ; by the principle that water is to be applied to the per- 
son, and not the person to the water ; and by the principle of 
open communion with all who make a creditable profession of 
being Christ's disciples, irrespective of the mode of baptism. 

(1.) God ordiiined and established the families of the earth, 
and connected with that economy his truth and wt>rship for two 
thousand years. The fomily of Abraham was favored with a 
rite of purification, observed not only by the fathers, but per- 
formed on their infant sons. Jehovah wjis " the God of all the 
families of Israel," and in Christ " all the families of the earth 
are to be blessed." Wherever the gospel is received by the head 
of the family. " salvation luxs come to that house." Thus '• the 
unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife (who believes.) and 
the unbelieving wite is sanctitied by the husband (who believes); 
else were your chiUlren unclean, but now are they holy." 1 Cor. 
vii. 14. As Jesus saves his people from their sins, so baptism 
with the element of cleansing is a proper syml>ol of that spiritual 
purification, as circumcision was under the patriarchal and Leviti- 
cal economies. Tiie apostle Peter, therefore, exhorted the inquir- 
ing multitude, " Be ye baptized every one of you," it:c. " Foi 
the promise is unto you and to your children, aiul to all that are 
afar oft", ■■ itc. Acts ii. oS. oO. "The reason why you, parents, 
should be baptized is, that the promise is to you ; but the pro- 
mise is to your children also, and therefore they should be bap- 
tized too." Thus. Lvdia was liaptized, and all her hotisc/iofif. 
The jailor at Philippi and all hia. — Acts xvi. 15, 33. Paul 
baptized the lioiisc/io/d of Stephanus, 1 Cor. i. It?. Justin 
Martyr, who wrote about forty years after the apostolic age, says, 



T TI K S A Y n R C) K I' L A T F O U M . 331 

" Sovoral persons ;ini(inj^st us, botli men iind womni, of s'lxh/ (tml 
soventy years old, who W(H"o inade (lisriples to C'lirisl in or J'rovi, 
their iHfhney, do conLiiuK; uncornij)!," ('^'C. Now thoy could not 
be proselyted or made disciples from their infancy, without beintr 
tresitc'd as such, that is, beinif baptized. (Matt, xxviii. 1!).) *S^>/// 
or seiienfy years from the time of Justin carrie.sus back almost into 
the middle of the apostolic ai^e, the period at which tlussc ivred 
Christians were so diseipled. 

(2.) In baptism wattM- is to be applied to the jkm-sou. Under 
the Mosaic law all the rites of purilication and consecration were 
so performed, "lie: sprinkled witli blood," itc. "Almost all 
thinors pursued with blood," iVc. "With my holy oil have I 
anointed him." " I shall be anointed loith fresh oil." " I will 
sprinkle clean water upon you," S:c. " Ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy (Jhost." How? He fell upon them — pourcsd forth — 
fihed forth, Arc. Circumstances render this mod(! more ])rol)al)le. 
The multitudes who were baptized by John, and, on tin; day of 
Pentecost, did not anticipate the reception of baplism, and were 
imprepared for it by immersion. It is not liki^ly that the baptism 
of Paul, Acts ix. 9, 18, 10, or that of th(( jaMor, Acts xvi. n;5, 
was by immcusion. Th(! quantity of the eh^ment employed can- 
not determine the right observance of an ordinance. TIk; Lord's 
Supper conveys the; idea of a 7neal ; yet we take the smallest 
quantity of bread and wine. Why may not the use of the smallest 
quantity of water, as the sign of cleansing, be accounted ba])tism ? 

(3.) That man makes a credible {)rofession of discipleship to 
Christ who observes all things that are made; plain to his mind 
from the New Testament, 'riiis is the case with those who ob- 
serve baptism in eitluu- mode, and therefore, neither should 
exclude the other from the fiord's table. " He who is accepted 
of Christ should be acce])ted of his brethren." 



THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM. 
IFroin an unpublished Mannscript.'\ 

In the year 1G48 the Canihridcje Platform was established by 
a convention of members from all the colonies, after a long deli- 
beration, which spread over several years. It accorded witii the 
general usage of the churches, which was then very much the 
same; as it is now in Massachusetts. It recognized the churches 
individually, as the only depositories of ecclesiastical authority, 
having \w superior or c(uut of any sort possessing the right to re- 
view their doings. Ordination, that Platform declares " nothing 



332 THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM. 

else but the solemn putting of a man in his place and office in the 
church, where unto he had right before by election." One of the 
designs in calling the convention at Cambridge is stated in its 
history to have been " for correcting some of the churches who 
were thought to favor the discipline of the Presbyterians." This 
Platform left the churches perfectly free and independent, for al- 
though the clergy met in associations, such as were convenient, 
and sometimes large conventions were brought together to con- 
sider specific subjects, yet none of the assemblies possessed any 
official authority over the churches. This Platform was adopted 
and practiced upon in all the colonies. The Presbyterian tenden- 
cies however were not entirely extinguished by it, but continued 
to exert themselves, especially in Connecticut, which was the bor- 
der territory between the two denominations. " Some closer 
bond of vmion among churches and ministers, seems to have been 
early and generally desired," says the history prefixed to the 
Saybrook Platform. This desire came to its denouement in 1708, 
when " the Legislature passed an act requiring the ministers and 
churches to meet and form an ecclesiastical constitution," " from 
Avhich," says the legislative resolution, " would arise a permanent 
establishment among ourselves, a good and regular issue in cases 
subject of ecclesiastical discipline." This Convention assembled 
at Saybrook, September 9, 1708. The only important measure 
of the meeting was the establishment of an ecclesiastical jurispru- 
dence under the name of " Consociation." The consociations 
were to exist one or more in each county, and to be composed of 
the pastors, and one or more delegates from each chui-ch, though 
nothing was to be " deemed an act or judgment of any coun*^ 
cil which hath not the act of tlie major part of the elders (pas- 
tors) present concurring." The consociations were to have final 
jurisdiction of all cases committed to them, but their jurisdiction 
extended only to cases of discipline, and only the church could 
call the consociation, the " offending brother," or person under 
discipline, being expressly denied this privilege. The consocia- 
tion therefore was a permanent authoritative council upon which 
the churches had a right to call in cases of discipline. The spirit 
of liberty for a long time resisted this plan, and as late as the be- 
ginning of the present century in all the Eastern half of the 
State the churches knew nothing of it. Since that time, however, 
these organizations have been pushed with great earnestness by 
many clergymen, and they have besides arrogated powers which 
are not at all conferred by the Platform. They even go so far 
as to declare that the churches can call no council but from the 
consociation and through its officers, and especially is tliis insisted 
on with regard to councils for the installation and dismission of 



THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM. 333 

pastors. In most, if not all, the consociations, the pastors now 
insist that the churches can neither settle nor dismiss ministers, 
but with the consent of a majority of the pastors of the con- 
sociation, and some pastors under this assumption go so far 
as to intimate that they aie secure in their places in despite 
of the opinion and desire of the church and parish, with which 
they are connected. But all this is sheer assumption without 
the least shadow of authority in the Platform. The consociat- 
ed churches are not obliged to take the advice of consociation 
on any occasion, and have the same right to settle and dismiss 
their pastors by the aid of mutual councils, or Avith any other 
councils, that they would have had if the Saybrook Platfoim 
liad never been laid. All a consociated church is bound to 
do is, if it calls the consociation, to obey its judgment in the 
matter of discipline submitted. The authority claimed by the 
consociations, that they alone can install and dismiss pastors, is ob- 
viously inconsistent with Congregationalism, the fundamental 
principle of which is, that every church is complete in itself, pos- 
sessing all the powers requisite for the appointment of its officers 
and the management of its affairs. A church which should sur- 
render its right to elect its own pastor would surrender an essen- 
tial right of Christian liberty, and would have no good claim af- 
terward to be called a Congregational church. I am not suffi- 
ciently acquainted with the history of the consociations to be able 
to say, how in all cases, they accumulated the powers which they 
claim. I happen to know of the consociation in New London 
county, that having induced most of the churches to join it as 
an arrangement for mutual edification, expressly disclaiming all 
authority, the consociation at one of its meetings resolved itsvlj 
into the only ecclesiastical council to be holden in the county. It 
happened that at that moment one of the consociated churches 
had an ordination on hand, and had already sent out letters mis- 
sive, inviting several sister churches to assist them on the joyful 
occasion. As the vote of consociation forbade this procedure, the 
church had no alternative but to recall its letters and submit to 
the assumption of consociation, or withdraw from it altogether. 
They preferred the latter. 

It is sufficiently evident from what I have written, that the 
scheme of Consociation, as now carried out in Connecticut, is radi- 
cally wrong. It has certainly no claim to have been constructed 
alter any apostolic model. It requires some close and personal 
inspection to be able to see what the practical effects of such a 
system are. Erroneous systems always in some way work prac- 
tical mischief. I have been more or less in Connecticut, and have 
noticed the following evils : 



334 THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM. 

First, discussion and differences of opinion respecting the pro- 
priety of the system. 

Secondly, a growing jealousy of the pastors under the suspi- 
cion tliat they arc aspiring after powez", and endeavoring to form 
a combination among themselves, under cover of wliich they 
can keep their places, and set disaffection at defiance. This is 
the more likely to be strong, as the })eople believe, that whenever 
a pastor becomes dissatisfied with them, or has a better place, or 
a more useful one offered him, and has a mind to go, he will go. 

Thirdly, a disposition to withdraw from consociation, which is 
suppressed only by the known wishes of the pastors, and is so 
secretly undermining tliein in the affections of their people, or 
breaking out in open collision. 

Fourthly, an unfavorable relationship between churches which 
have withdrawn, or have stood aloof from Consociation, and their 
sister churches, but especially the pastors of those churches. The 
effort of the clergy to induce chui'ches to come into the conso- 
ciations, to prevent them from withdrawing, and when they do 
withdraw to prevent tlieir example from being followed by 
others, is encountered with the worst prejudices. 1 know one in- 
stance at least, where a great deal of mischief is secretly working 
in tliis way. 

These evils may not as yet be very extensively visible, espe- 
cially to tlu! pastors, who ai-e likely to know less of them than any- 
body else. But the developments will be jnore and more dis- 
tinct from year to year, i wonder that so very intelligent and 
intluential a community of men as the clergy of Connecticut 
should subject themselves to tiiese evils, for so little good as can 
possibly come of Consociation. They have the power to hold a 
controlling sway by means of their siipeiior learning and piety, 
and very httle other sway can they possibly acquire. Why then 
should they excite the jealousy of their people to no purpose ? 
Doubtless they think that the good of the cliurches would be 
promoted by more of what is termed " permanency in the minis- 
terial olhce." Possibly Consociation may for a time increase that 
permanency, but I am mistaken if in the end its effects be not quite 
the reverse. The feeling of subjugation to ecclesiastical authority 
is operating injuriously upon the Congiegational churches of Con- 
necticut, and aiding cither denominations. The people there will 
not submit quietly to what they deem a clerical usurpation, and I 
apprehend if t'oiisociation is persisted in, with its oifensive fea- 
tures, that it will work commotion in many chui-ches, if not a ge- 
neral revolution. 1 am glad to see by the debates in the General 
Association of Conni'ctiout, that at least some clergymen are dis- 
posed to let the whole system fall into disuse. That it will be 



ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 335 

thrown off eventually, I have no doubt. If the clergy are not 
men of practical good sense enough to see this, and insist on the 
usurpation which tliey have established, then many parishes will 
dwindle away by certificating, and linger along under disaffection, 
until the clergy or the churches perceive that this mongrel hi(!r- 
arcliy is destroying Congregationalism in the " land of steady 
habits." I hope the discovery may be made in season to avert 
such a result. 



ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 
\_From an unpublished Manu.icripl.'l 

Of all the evils of political government, one of the greatest is 
over-legislation — too -much interference with individual choice. 
When bodies of men come together clothed with authority, 
they must needs exercise that authority. ]3ut if the exercise of 
authority were confined to proper objects, and within proper 
limits, the laws to be passed would be so few, and the affairs (;f 
government so simple, that to be a legislator would be no mighty 
matter. There are always manj' evils in society, and many 
things which would b(! right if let alone have been made; wrong 
by previoi^s legislation, so that at every session the labor of put- 
ting everything just right exactly, is sufli(;ient to m;ik(! much 
talk and raise much dust. One honorabh; gentleman lias his 
fences made of upright strips of board or pickets, and his iicigh- 
l)ors' pigs priiss their lank sides between them. lie, therefore, 
moves for a bill requiring that all swine running at larg*; in the 
highway shall be restrained by yok(;s made of f(jur sticks, so 
placed as to form a .square in the center, the ends proje(;ting 
each way to the distance of six inches, 'i'liis disposition to rcjju- 
late everything by statute law is often extended to the most 
injurious interference with individual liberty aftd private rights. 
A thousand matters, which, if left to liberty and the laws 
which God has made, would pass off with order and u.se- 
fulness, are thrown out of order and out of use by indis- 
creet efl'orts at too much regulation. The exceeding simpli- 
city of wise government has hardly as yet been coinj)ieh(!n(led 
by the mass of men, much less by those who occujiy positions of 
authority and supcirvision. It is coming, we hope, to be utidcr- 
sLood that liherti/ is the great conservative power, and that the 
government is strongest which is least felt, and that sociely most 
pea(;eful, as a giMicral ruli-, which is most left to itself. \Vhat an 
illustrious display of the power of hberty to produce good order 



336 ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION. 

have we Just had in our national election ! Two mighty parties 
•w]:o for months have been training for action, until charged 
with excitement in every nerve, have marclied to the polls, de- 
posited their ballots, and the stiife is ended. Scarcely a blow 
has been struck or a drop of blood shed. Not a life has been 
lost. The defeated party acquiesce in the result, and would de- 
fend the government elect from all attempts at unconstitutional 
violence with as much zeal as the party which has been success- 
ful. Not a soldier has been called out to preserve the peace, 
nor has any force been on the ground beyond small bodies of 
poHceraen with their staves. This is the peace of liberty ! The 
wisest efforts of arbitrary government never equaled it, never 
approached it. 

In religious concerns our governing has been carried to even 
a more injurious extent than in politics. Private judgment and 
private action have in most ages of Christianity, as well as of all 
other systems, been the most alarming objects for contemplation 
by the rulers. So much legislation has been enacted to prevent 
errors of doctrine and disoiders of practice, that men were 
brought to beheve almost nothing which was true, and to act for 
nothing Avhich was desirable. Noble man was made an ignoble 
machine. We have escaped by the good providence of God, 
and the wonderful sacrifices of our fathers, from the worst of 
these trammels, and yet w-e should be unwise to suppose that 
the disposition in leading men, which produced the mischief is 
not as rife now as ever. 

The fondness for public displav, the disposition to act on an 
extended scale, mingled with the very sincere opinion entertained 
by almost every man that he is wiser than his fellow-men, and 
so eminently qualified to rule usefully and extensively, will con- 
stantly be oiiginating large plans of government. Merclv to 
feed the sheep and feed the lambs is too simple a business tn fill 
the desires of man's expanding bosom. We have been surprised 
to see by the reports of the religious papers what mighty assem- 
blages have been in labor during the summer and autumn. Con- 
ventions, synods, councils, unions, conferences, and more be- 
sides, quarterly, annual, and triennial, have been passing before 
us. No sect is so small but that it builds up its little scaffold 
on which its wise men move to and fro, and from which they 
scatter their decrees of regulation, opinion, and advice. W^e have 
been most interested in these assemblages among the denomi- 
nations with which we are best acquainted. There was a gieat 
convention of Presbyterians and Congregationalists at Cleveland 
last summer, which interested us a good deal, and we laid aside 
the religious papers containing the reports of its proceedings, in- 



CHRISTIAN UNION. 33T 

tending to mingle our wisdom with the wisdom of that numerous, 
learned, reverend, and pious body. But other topics more im- 
mediately belonging to our own diocese occupied us, and the 
convention has passed into the distance. WJiat particularly 
attracted our attention in the proceedings of that body was the 
universality of its jurisdiction. It was not the judicatory or 
legislature of any particular denomination, but a body which had 
called itself together ; yet it seemed to think itself the parliament 
of the realm, acting under a most satisfactory weight of responsi- 
bility. That the great affairs which hung upon its decisions 
might receive attention in due order, they were distributed to 
the hands of standing committees. Slavery in the United States 
was committed to one committee, colleges and education to 
another, newspapers to another, colportage to another. 

After informinn: the world what ought to be believed and done 
with regard to most or all of these matters, the important assem- 
bly adjourned, not, we are happy to say, without determining to 
hold another such-like assembly next year, when we trust the 
annexation of Texas, the regulation of the currency, and the pro- 
tective system will not be neglected. Indeed, we could not help 
thinking that protection against unauthorized competition was not 
altogether forgotten at Cleveland. 



CHRISTIAN UNION.— THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, October 29, 1846.] 

A GREAT number of persons have, in these latter years, set 
upon finding Christian union, or the basis of it ; yet the seai'ch 
seems to have been only as successful as that in old times for the 
philosopher's stone. What Christian disxymon is, every man can 
easily ascertain ; for he finds his own heart and all his propensities 
full of it. His conscience is ever alive to it ; that conscience which 
would not allow the negro to work, viz. : " something in here 
which says I wont.'' There are so many paths to disunion, that 
they cover all the ground, and render it evident that, if there is 
any path of union, it is indeed a strait and narrow way. 

Especially has the search been reanimated lately, by the assem- 
bling of twelve hundred men at London, to make one great effort 
to find, if possible, this long-lost pearl. They all agreed that it 
was a pearl of great price, which a man might well compass sea 
and land, and sell all that he had, to buy. They were the wise 
men of the East and the West, learned in everything, ancient and 
modern, and evidently intent, with one mind and with great zeal, 
15 



338 CHRISTIAN UNION. 

in the searcli, and determined, if there were any such thing as 
Christian union, however deep it might be buried beneath super- 
stition, bigotry, fanaticism, arrogance, and whatever else may go 
to make up the great sectarian compost, that they would dig it 
out and show it to a curious and contemptuous world. They did 
cast away mountains of the compost, and did find some gems of 
truth and harmony, well worth the cost and trouble of the 
search ; but, that they did not discover the great truth for which 
they sought, was evidently the sad conviction which settled 
down on all their minds. In fact, after all the joyfulness of the 
meeting, they seem to have separated with the impression ra- 
ther more distinct than before, that there was really no such thing 
as they sought ; at any rate not in London, for they made ar- 
rangements for branch unions, local, detached searchings in vari- 
ous places, where small, imperfect gems may be found, but where 
they all knew the grand pearl lay not. They appeared to under- 
stand that another general, broad, universal, catholic search would 
not soon be attempted, and Dr. Beecher, who was as earnest in 
the search as any one, states on his return, publicly and repeat- 
edly, that all which was found, or which could be found, was the 
union of the majority, or the jwssible number, which is plainly an 
abandonment of the whole thing. What this council of twelve 
hundred did find, they have laid before the world in the following 
propositions : 

THE DOCTlllNAL BASIS. 

1. The persons composing the Alliance shall be such persons only as 
hold and maintain what arc usually under.stood to be evangelical views, 
in regard to matters of doctrine understated, viz. : 

1. The Divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy 
Scriptures. 

2. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of 
the Holy Scriptures. 

3. The unity of the Godhead, and the Trinity of Persons therein. 

4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall. 

5. The incarnation of the Son of God, (and) his work of atonement 
for sinners of mankind, and liis mediatorial intercession and reign. 

G. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 

7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of 
the sinner. 

8. The immortatity of the soul, the resurrectio7i of the body, the judg- 
ment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness 
of the righteous, and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 

9. The Divine institution of the Christian ministry, and the (authori- 
ty,) obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's 
Supper. 

It is, however, distinctly (declared,) First, that this brief summary is 
not to be regarded in any formal or ecclesiastical sense, as a creed or 
confession, nor the adoption of it as involving an assumption of the 
right authoritatively to define the limits of Christian brotherhood, but 



CHRISTIAN UNION. 339 

simply as an indication of the class of persons whom it is desirable to 
embrace within the Alliance : Second, that the selection of certain tenets, 
with the omission of others, is not to be held as implying that the former 
constitute the whole body of important truth, or that the latter are un- 
important. 

II. That the Alliance is not to be considered as an alliance of denomi- 
nations, or branches of the Church, but of individual Christians, each 
acting on his own responsibility. 

III. That in the prosecution of the present attempt, it is distinctly de- 
clared, that no compromise of the views of any member, or sanction of 
those of others, on the points wherein they differ, is cither required or 
expected ; but that all arc held as free as before to maintain and advo- 
cate their religious convictions, with due forbearance and brotherly 
love. 

IV. That it is not contemplated that this Alliance should assume or 
aim at the cliaracter of a new ecclesiastical organization, claiming and 
exercising the functions of a Christian church. Its simple and compre- 
hensive object, it is strongly felt, may be successfully promoted without 
interfering with, or disturbing the order of, any branch of the Chris- 
tian Church to which its members may respectively belong. 

V. That while the formation of this Alliance is regarded as an impor- 
tant step toward the increase of Christian union, it is acknowledged as 
a duty incumbent on all its members carefully to abstain from pronoun- 
cing any uncharitable judgment upon those who do not feel themselves 
in a condition to give it their sanction. 

VI. Tli.it the members of tliis Alliance earnestly and affectionately re- 
commend to each, in their own conduct, and particularly in their own 
use of the press, carefully to abstain from and put away all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, with all malice; 
and in all things in whicii they may yet differ from each otlier, to be 
kind, tender-hearted, forbearing one anotlier in love, forgiving one an- 
other, even as God, for Clirist's sake, hath forgiven thera ; in everything 
seeking to be followers of God, as dear children, and to walk in love, as 
Christ also loved them. 

When men assume to form a imion of the disciples of any 
raastei', they are obviously bound to make no other conditions to 
the union than the mastei" has made. To put in other things 
than He has put in, and then assume this extended basis as the 
true basis of union, is unjust, as well as en-oneous, for it excludes 
some whom the Master has received. The idea of Christian 
union (if men have any distinct idea about it) must be the union 
of all the real disciples of Christ, and it proceeds upon the as- 
sumption that there are certain things essential to discipleship, 
and that of course these essentials are common to all, and that 
upon them, all the disciples can come together in harmony. This 
thought receives additional interest and illustration from the ex- 
pectation that all who possess these essential things will dwell 
together in heaven with Christ, and spend their future life in per- 
fect harmony Avith Him and one another. This theory is simple, 
and every mind comes irresistibly to the conclusion that it is pos- 
sible to begin this union on earth. Why is it, then, that so much 



340 CHRISTIAN UNION. 

honest effort cannot reach this so much-desired union ? Is it im- 
possible in the nature of the case to ascertain tlie common ground 
of unit}' in the common essentials ? or is there still so much su- 
perstition, and error, and sectarianism, and selfishness, hanging in 
scales upon the e^^es of the wise and good, tliat they have no 
vision to perceive that which is most obvious ? 

It is clear that such an union must be formed solely for the 
sake of union, and the joy and benefit of union, without the in- 
tention of doing anything whatever. It must be "union for the 
sake of union," or it is something besides simple union upon es- 
sentials. To put in something to do would be to make a union 
of so many as could agree to do that thing, and so would shut 
Gilt all who do not approve of this particular mode of exhibiting 
their discipleship. 

We shall not go so far out of our proper course as to make a 
theological argument to prove how much is essential to Christian 
discipleship. The " doctrinal basis " of the Alliance shows why 
they could not find the union which they sought. The sixth and 
shortest article discloses the mischief. Say the Alliance, " The 
justification of the sinner is by faith alone." If this is so, then 
faith is the only essential, and all the other articles are extra- 
judicial, non-essentials, about which disciples may differ, and still 
be disciples. If we remember right, this is very much as Christ 
preached, and laid the matter down himself. We cannot recol- 
lect tb.at he anywhere mentioned any one of the eight articles as 
essential to discipleship. " VVha' — wha' — wha' — what do you 
say ?" stammer a thousand tongues ; " that we must take in every 
man who says he has faitli ? Wliy, that would include Quakers, 
Czerski, and even Papists. Monstrous ! monstrous ! !" Well, 
monstrous as it is, you must, according to your own showing, 
gulp it down, if you would have Christian union in its perfect- 
ness. All the rest may be very great truths, and very necessary 
to be believed, in order to the most perfect Christian character, 
but you have made them all non-essential by your own great de- 
claration, faith alone is the ground of justification. But let us 
see whether all the rest is exactly true. What do you ministers 
mean by making your divine right one of the nine bars of your 
inclosure? Do you. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, 
Baptists, Methodists, and ministers of all denominations, mean, 
here in the middle of the nineteenth century, to declare soberly 
to a gaping world, that there can be no church without a bishop ; 
in short, no chui-ch Avithout you ? Verilv, you may have the 
basis of a ministerial luiion, of a hierarchy as broad as the earth ; 
but if the laity set iip their occupations as just as much of 
"divine institution " as yours, why then you have the union of a 



CHRISTIAN UNION. 341 

caste, and notliing more. Did you have any distinct idea at all, 
wlien you adoj)ted this corner-stone of superstition in p;ifran and 
])apal churches ? This is tlie doctrine which lias rent all Chris- 
tendom, and caused nine-tenths of all the persecution under 
whicli our race has groaned. If it means anything, it means 
that you are something which other men are not ; and can do 
things with a mysterious elKcacy which other men cannot impart. 
Do you mean that you are brought into this " divine institution " 
by certain manipulations which were performed by those already 
in it, by which an ojjlclal character or nature was imparted to 
you, separated from your personal character ; so that you may be 
very good oflicial actors in God's name, though personally, some 
of you perhaps have paid Him little homage, and spend your 
time in the service of another master ? We think some of the 
American genth^men are bound to tell whether the atmosphere of 
llieir hall was bedimmcd by Puseyism, that they adopted this fun- 
damental doctrine of Popery ; or wluither thej' do indeed hold it 
in the pure air of America ; and if they do hold it liere, what 
the}' intend us, the people, to understand by it. It was the pro- 
mulgation and belief of such things which engendered the infi- 
delity of Franco, and does the same in all countries where they 
are generally adopted. Intelligent men who know nothing else 
about Christianity, get to think it only a system of priestcraft on 
one side, and superstition on the other, and cry, " Crush the 
Avretch !" because they think the author of Christianity was the 
author of the abuses which they see around them. 

It was especially out of keeping lo put forth such a dogma as 
essential to Christian union, when the assembly which put it forth 
was convened in utter rejection of it. Twelve hundred consti- 
tuted the union, yet one, not of the divine institution, presided 
over them, and in every way their pi-actice was in contradiction 
to the theory. The Alliance tliouglit it necessary to declare that 
they did not aim at " exercising the functions of a Christian 
church," implying that their assembly might be so regarded, and 
would be so in reality if they but determined so, yet there were 
no ])rin('ipalities nor powers — nothing but gifts. But they were a 
church for the time being, and perf(;i-med all the functions of a 
church, and very much after the piimitiv(i fashion, too. If Christ 
had appeared personally among them, and said, " I am your Mas- 
ter, and all ye are bretiiren," all of them would have united in a 
hearty response. What denomination did this church of the Al- 
liance belong to ? and after what j)lan was it made ? It was a 
thing worth contemplating in tliis light, as well as many others. 
Men often pay homage to the truth by their conduct, while 



342 CHRISTIAN UNION. 

Ihey little think of it, and even while their lips avow quite oppo- 
site doctrines. 

But although the Alliance did not find the threat truth which 
they sought, and made some very painful mistakes in their efforts 
to find it or to set it up, yet they did make some great discoveries. 
They learned unanimously, that an individual disciple had, in him- 
self, and without being sent or appointed by any ecclesiastical 
body, a divine right to go in his own name to the Alliance, and 
there to act in his own name and upon his own responsibility. 
This was a hard saying when first broached in the Free Church of 
Scotland, and long did the judicatories debate it before they could 
agree not to forbid it. This, then, was a meeting of the people ; 
a thoroughly democratic assemblage of men, who, however much 
of divine right they might suppose themselves to possess in their 
official capacities at home, carried none of it there. They came, 
not as delegates, nor functionaries, but merely as Christian men. 
This was the fact, though they seem scarcely to have been aware 
of it. Yet they acted upon it throughout. A great advance 
that, in Christian opinion, which allows that a Christian has a 
right in himself to attend a voluntary assembly of his fellow- 
Christians, and commune with tliem about Christian union. Then 
to agree that such a body of mere individuals had a right to 
make a creed, to deliberate, and publish their deliberations to the 
world, and even to declare that tiiey did not " aim at the charac- 
ter of a new ecclesiastical organization," which was as much as 
to say that they could establish such an organization if they 
would, is certainly a very radical proceeding, tending to destroy 
reverence for office, and end — no one knows Avhere. 

Another important discovery was, that Christian union is a vol- 
untary matter ; a union not of denominations, but of individuals 
of congenial feelings ; and that this is the only way in which a 
real imity can be attained. 

The American delegation learned something about the notions 
of some of themselves, on anti-slavery excommunion. Gentle- 
men who have been shutting out slaveholders from their pulpits 
and communion-tables, found the same screw turned hard down 
upon themselves, as guilty participants in the system ; for our 
English brethren are rampant Abolitionists, and hold us all guilty 
of being pro-slavery men, " pirates," " man-stealers," and all that, 
if we hesitate to denounce all slaveholders with these terms, in 
the true Garrison style. It was instructive to these gentlemen, 
just as the farmer's declaration, "It was your bull," instructed 
the lawyer. They Avere in a mass driven, by their own rule, from 
the communion of this church of the Alliance. In a single day 
they learned unanimously that this was not a proper ingredient 



CHRISTIAN UNION. 343 

in the basis of Cliristian union. Tlie lesson was worth a voyage 
to England, and we hope will enlarge and correct the views of 
these gentlemen for all their future course, and save them from 
foiming more churches " on the anti-slavery and total-abstinence 
principle." ^ 

ITpon the whole. Christian union among intelligent, thinking, 
independent minds is no easy thing, as the world goes. He that 
would compass it must have a great heart, a much greater one 
than beats in most of our degenerate, selfish, proud bosoms, how- 
ever much better influences may have been at work there. He 
must have " the spirit of Christ " in measures always offered, but 
seldom accepted. He must be meek and lowly, and boundless in 
liis benevolence, so that he can even love his enemies, and bless 
while they curse. He must have no ill-will toward any being — 
no, not toward that arch-angclic intelligence which led the hosts 
of heaven in their great revolt, and is now sunk with them to all 
the wretchedness of an eternal hatred of happiness and goodness. 
He must hate no one, wish none ill, but pity where he cannot 
love. He must have contemplated the benevolence of Christ un- 
til he has become enthusiastic in admiration and love, and is ready 
to follow him and imitate him, as the soldier does the captai»i 
with whom he will gladly rush to the cannon's mouth. He 
must have such an enthusiasm in his soul, that when he meets 
another man, he Avill ask nothing of him but whether he knows 
and loves the Great Captain, to give him the hand of fellowship, 
and, though he be poor and despised, to receive him as a brother 
beloved. A benevolence which knows no limit can alone realize 
Christian union. The great soul of Robert Hall was in the spirit 
of Christian union, when he said, "He who is good enough for 
Christ is good enough for me." 

The possession of such heai-ts, and their active union together, 
was the thing sought for by the Christian Alliance ; and although 
they did not come \'ery near to the perfect enjoyment of what 
they desired, it is evident that the pursuit was ennobling and joy- 
ful beyond description. The idea is grand, and the feeblest effort 
to realize it worthy of all praise. No doubt the gentlemen who 
assembled have been and will continue to be richly repaid for 
tiieir toils and various dangers, both in the scene itself and their 
reflections upon it. They will remember, too, that they will be 
expected to set noble examples hereafter ; to meet in their vari- 
ous ecclesiastical bodies, without making it their tirst business to 
calumniate Southern Chiistians, and their second to kick the men 
of Oberlin, nor even abuse the Pope beyond his deserts, nor treat 
Satan himself as if they took pleasure in his pains. 

The Alliance has done much incidental good. The Americans 



344 ROMANISM AND COLLATERAL SUBJECTS. 

have evidcnt]y made a strong impi-ession on the Europeans, and 
the Europeans on them, and all on all. The impression is as good 
as it is strong. They better understand each other, and each 
other's nations. Mutual respect and esteem have to some extent 
taken the place of narrow prejudice. Real union has been in- 
creased, leal truth impressed on all minds, and the ultimate 
accomplishment of an universal Catholic union made a subject of 
consideration and hope. 



ROMANISM AND COLLATERAL SUBJECTS. 



The Journal of Commerce was perhaps the first secular news- 
paper in the United States which introduced into its columns a 
discussion of the doctiines, principles and claims of the Roman 
Catholic Church. Mr. Hale gives this account of the effect of 
his first allusion to this subject. " We had at the outset a few 
Catholic subscribers : but in sxivintr an account of a ffreat conven- 
tion of Catholic clergymen at Baltimore, to say masses for the 
relief of the soul of a bishop, who had died some six months be- 
fore, we happened to put in the thought which must have been 
uppermost in the minds of everybody, viz. : that the clergy had 
been very careless of their brother in that they had allowed him 
to roast in purgatory for six months before coming to his help. 
It was too much to be home, and orders to 'stop my paper' 
came from all parts of the country. The loss however was not 
very great, and Ave were rather glad it occurred ; for it released 
us from the peculiar restraint which we had felt under, not of 
fear, bvit of courtesy toward the religious predilections of sub- 
scribers. From that day we have felt at libei-ty, not to do wrong 
to Catholics, nor to enter into theological eflforts to counteract 



ADDRESS TO ROMAN CATHOLICS. 345 

them, but to treat them as the best interests of the country- 
seemed to us to require, whenever they have interfered impro- 
perly with American citizens, or their institutions." 

When the question of the use of the Bible in public schools 
was agitated in New York, Mr. Hale took an active part in the 
discussion, and Avrote several able articles against sectarian 
schools. In 1842 he had a controversy with Bishop Hughes, 
growing out of the criticisms of the Journal of Commerce upon 
the Bishop's " Pastoral Letter." As this discussion related 
chiefly to matters of fact, and incidents of mere passing moment, 
and as it was widely published in the third number of Mr. 
Hale's " Facts and Reasonings," it is deemed inexpedient to 
transfer the articles to these pages. Another discussion between 
Mr. Hale and a Committee of Roman Catholics, touching certain 
allegations in the Journal of Commerce, is omitted for the same 
reason. The Address to the Roman Catholics of the United 
States, which prefaced the edition of these documents referred 
to above, may serve as a general introduction to the articles 
which follow. 



TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Felloio- Citizens : 

You will, I suppose, hardly thank me for addressing this pub- 
lication to you, for you probably think me a bitter enemy of all 
Catholics. Under such circumstances it would be folly in me to 
make professions of friendship. But there are some things in 
whi(5h your interests are identified with mine. As citizens of this 
great and free country, our interests are the same. Liberty is as 
important to you and your children, as it is to me and my chil- 
dren ; and if our common liberty is overthrown, we shall suffer 
together, whether the instruments in the work be Catholics or 
Protestants. It would be doubly shameful in you, who have 
been admitted without stint to all the immunities of a free gov- 
ernment already established, if you were to do anything, or allow 
anything to be done within your community, which should en- 
danger those immunities. And let me tell you, if the general 
structure of a free government is to be sustained, every cord and 
fiber of sound principle, wherever it may wind itself, must be pre • 
15* 



346 ADDRESS TO ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

served. The lofty mast of a great ship need not have an axe 
struck into it — if the shrouds are allowed to be cut, one after 
another, when the wind blows the mast will go by the board. 
We are fellow-citizens of this republic, and interested mutually 
and equally in the preservation of our fair possessions. We are 
also fellow-travelers to eternity, and interested alike to find out 
the way to a better world. God has marked out that way, and 
the consequences of error about it will be equally fatal to us 
both. There are, then, some reasons, why we should be friends. 
There are some subjects upon which our interests are identified. 
There are also some principles in which I think we shall agree. 
One of these is that Jehovah is a God of truth, — never speaking 
falsely himself, nor authorizing others to do so in His name. If 
a prophet or a priest come to us proclaiming lies, then God has 
not sent him ; or if in connection with some truth he proclaims 
some one or more palpable falsehoods, he is not God's ambassa- 
dor, — at least so far as he is occupied with these falsehoods, and 
they throw great suspicion on his whole character. There are 
many points of difference between Catholics and Protestants, 
which, being dependent on long courses of reasoning, the truth 
cannot be ascertained with such certainty as to command univer- 
sal assent. But with some matters of fact it is otherwise. If 
one man says that a substance lying in the street is rotten wood, 
and another says it is an iron shaft, it is not difficult to ascertain 
who speaks truly. There is one fact between us capable of simi- 
lar demonsti-ation. Y"our priests and your Church pronounce 
the Protestant versions of the Bible " spurious." Whether this 
is a truth or a falseliood it is easy for you to determine ; for 
your Church has ' sanctioned the Douay translation as genuine. 
Let me ask you to take that, and one of the Bibles which are 
distributed by tlie Bible societies, such as were pubhcly burned 
at Corbeau, and compare tlie two together. I know several 
Catholics who have done so, and they all say, that the two trans- 
lations are alike, except in a few words. If the two translations 
are alike, what becomes of the veracity of your Church and her 
priests ? — for this is not a matter about which they are in igno- 
rance. They know what the truth is in the case. If you find 
on examination that the Protestant Bibles are fair translations of 
the original, and not spurious, then their spuriousness is not the 
reason why you are forbidden to read them, nor is it the reason 
why they are gathered in heaps and burned. While you read 
for the purpose proposed, let me ask you to see if you can find 
any authority, in any Bible, for praying to saints, or worsliiping 
the Virgin. If you find any passages which forbid that worship, 
note them in both Bibles. If you find that Protestants are right 



ADDRESS TO ROMAN CATHOLICS, 347 

in these two matters, as you certainly will, I hope your desire to 
know Avliat is trutli will not suffer you to rest until you have ex- 
amined all the chief points of dilference. Then, all I have to 
say is, go with God and ti'uth. 

In calling on you to vindicate our common liberty against spir- 
itual usurpations, I ask you to do no more in your Cliurch than 
I hold myself bound to do in mine. This paper, which I now 
present to you, is, as you see, the third of a series. The other 
two were published for the purpose of resisting wrongs in the 
Church to which I then belonsxed. The rights and duties of 
men in these respects are the same in all churches. In the 
support of our various religious denominations, let us never for- 
get that we are Americans. 

If Protestantism has done some things wi-ong, it has done 
some things right. This liberty of ours is Protestant liberty. 
There is no pretense that the institutions of this country were 
shaped by Roman Catholic priests. Tiiey were shaped by Pro- 
testant priests and laymen, and you praise them because they are 
rightly shaped. This universal education, which you find here, 
does not exist in Catholic countries, yet it is right, and you 
praise it. Protestantism therefore has done something well, and 
in some respects lias secured your approbation. A system 
which has established liberty and universal education for the 
poor, you will not denj^ is worthy of great praise. Let me ask 
you, not reproachfully, but respectfully and seriously, wliy, when 
you determined to leave Europe, you did not sail for South, 
rather than North America ? The soil, the climate, all the 
natural advantages there, are quite as great as here, and the 
country has been longer settled. It is a Catholic country witlial, 
and this is Protestant. Why did you not select the country to 
which your religious affinities vpould naturally have inclined 
you ? You will say, perhaps, that South America has no lib- 
erty, no schools, no settled governments ; that it has nothing 
which a wise man could enjoy, or a good father desire to leave 
as an inheritance to his children. Tell me now, why, in the civil 
condition of the two parts of this continent, there is everything 
you desire here, and everything you dislike there. You can 
give no other answer, there is no other answer, than this : South 
America was settled by Catholics, and is a Catholic country. 
North America was settled by Protestants, and is a Protestant 
country. Can the thing be good, which has worked such evil 
there, and that be evil, which has worked such good here ? 
The free circulation of the Bible, that book of God, which your 
Church, Avhenever she has the power, forbids the people to read 
in any translation ; that book is the pillar of our liberty, peace. 



S48 CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. 

and happiness. It is a book of individual liberty. It is the gift 
of God, not to kings and priests only, but to all the race. It is 
addressed to you and me as men, and it tells each one of us 
liow we may secure the fuvor of God and eternal life, without 
the help or the consent of the Church, the priests, or any other 
person. God gives you liberty to read the Bible, to believe in 
Jesus Christ, and be saved. More than this, you have no lib- 
erty not to read it. The way of salvation is laid down there by 
the Author of it — and do you think th;it all the priests on earth 
ran veto His enactment ? He says that " all liars shall have their 
])art in the like which burnetii with tire and brimstone." And 
do you suppose that if a liar were to be baptized every day, con- 
fi^ss to a jiriest, and be absolved by him as often, at his death 
have rivers of oil poured upon him, and afterward millions of 
nuisses said for the repose of his soul, do you suppose that all 
this would keep him out of hell, or help him out after he was 
in ? If you do, you suppose the Roman Catholic Church 
stronger than God. 

Fellow-citizens, on this sheet I present you with copies of the 
C(M-respondence, which I have held, on two different occasions, 
with leaders among you. In both cases your champions have 
retired, and left me alone in the tield. Read these letters and 
let me receive at your hands, if not the kindness whiuh belongs 
to a friend, at least the fairness which you accord to an enemy. 



[From the Journal of Commerce, Febmary 19, 1838.] 
CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. 

Wk received, a day or two ago, a small periodical, entitled 
" Children's Catholic Magazine." We hope it may have an ex- 
ten.sive circulation among the Catholic children in our country ; 
for if they i-ead this, tliey will of course liave first learned to read, 
and having learned to lead, they •<vil! read whatever falls in their 
way, and soon learn to think as Avell as read. Eveir this little 
magazine, although thoroughly sectarian, teaches some good 
things. 

We see on one of the first pages, this little statement as a mat- 
ter of fact : " The last descendant of Martin Luther, now living 
in Germany, and verj'- poor, lately abjured the Reformed, and 
adopted the Catholic religion." Well, there must be some com- 
fort in that, to the Pope and his adherents, if the fact be so ; and 
if it be not, the story is just as good. There are some conse- 
quences of Martin Luther not yet turned Catholic. Pray, do 
they, m thoroughly Catholic countries, print little magazines for 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 349 

children to read? Under whose paternal promptinj^s is this little 
Catliolic manual put forth ? Martin Luther is the father of it ; 
and but for him, we dare venture anythini^, it would never have 
seen the day. Our newspapers, our periodicals, our })u})lic 
schools, are all the descendants of Martin Luther. The millions 
of our free-born population are all his children. But for him we 
might have been like the children of the Pope who live in Italy, 
near their father. Which is the happiest family ? 



[Protn l/ic Journal of Cummcrcc, Janvary 11, 1841.] 
SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

It may be as well to go to the bottom of this subject at once, 
and to examine certain principles, which, even if not expressly 
mentioned in the discussion, exert a secret intluence on the minds ' 
of others besides the Roman Catholics. 

It is said that governments everywhere have a right to provide 
for their own existence, safety, and healtliy operation, and of 
course may and ought to use the necessary means of doing it ; 
that government cannot maintain itself and accomplish its pur- 
poses without a sense of rehgious obligation among the people ; 
that, therefore, the government lias tlie right, and is bound, to 
see that the people are religiously educated ; that, as there neither 
is nor can be, in actual existence, any such thing as religion in 
general, without any particular form, religion can be taught only 
according to the form in which it is held by some sect ; that the 
State cannot escape from that alternative by presci'ibing a form of 
its own in which reliy;ion shall be tauMit, as the adherents of that 
form would themselves be a sect ; and that, therefore, the State 
has the right, and is bound by the necessity of providing for its 
own safety, to sustain sectarian schools. 

Tliis looks plausible; but before entering upon the path whicli 
it indicates, let us see whither it will lead us. 

If the State is bound to teach religion as a means of preserv- 
ing its own safety, it is certainly bound to teach such religion, and 
such only, as will answer that purpose. If the Mormons hold 
that the world and all it contains is th(;irs, and that they are soon to 
take possession of it, and have a right, even now, to take posses- 
sion of such part? of it as they conveniently can, in disregard of 
the laws of all earthly governments, the State certainly should 
not teacli the doctrines of that sect. If the Non-resistants hold 
that ;dl human government is an abomination in the sight of God, 
and that no man ought to take any part in it, or pay any regard 



850 SECTARIAN SOIIOOLS, 

to its mandates or dooisions. the State ought not to teach the doc- 
trines of that sect. If, as the Turks grow civiHzed, a coinpau)' 
of the more fanatical among them, hoUling it a rehgious duty to 
kill " Christian dogs " and seize their property, should come and 
settle among us. to pieserve their religion in its purity, the State 
ought not to teach the doctrines of that sect. If there be a de- 
nomination of jMofessed Christians, whose doctrines encourage 
men to expect impunity in crime, the State ought not to teach its 
doctrines. If there be a sect whose doctrines inculcate the duty 
of overthrowing the present government and establishing another, 
even at the expense of civil war, or by the aid of armies called in 
from abroad, — and the history of more than one nation in Eu- 
rope shows that such sects may exist. — the State ought not to 
teach its doctrines. Or, if there be any sect whose doctrines arc 
inethcient, and fail to protluce such a moral charat-tcr in its disci- 
ples as the safety of tiie Slate requires to be l\iund in its citizens, 
the State should not teach its doctrines. JNor may the State 
hazard its own safety by trying^ the experiment of teaching any 
new doctrine that may be proposed. It must teach, and cause 
its subjects to believe, such doctrines as are known to be safe. It 
must select such a creed as the safety of the State requires, and 
cause that creed to be inculcated. It must judge for itself, what 
sects are safe ; and if but one such can be foimd, must select its 
doctrines as the religion to be taught by the State. If a multi- 
plicity of sects is found to be dangerous, it must select the best 
among them and suppress the others. 

Are we willing to intrust the State with such discretionary 
power over religion '? To what purpose lia\'e we separated the 
Church from the State, if religion is thus to be brought under the 
control of the State by means of schools? Must there not be 
some error in the principles Avhich lead to such a conclusion ? But 
this is not all. 

If the State must teach religion, it must have command of all 
the necessary means of teaching it. The most important means, 
the indisponsable instrument, without which all others must bo 
xmavailing, is the pulpit. Without the pul|)it, the citizens can 
never be made what the safety of the State lequires them to be. 
Without the command of the pulpit, the command of the schools 
will never enable the State to teach religion so as to insure its 
own safety. If the State must produce in its citizens that reli- 
gious character which its own safety requires, it must ha\e com- 
miind of the pulpit, as well as of the schools ; it must secure 
such preaching as the necessities of the State require ; it must 
pro\ide an adequate supply of clergymen, whose instructions will 
be politically safe, must place them where they are needed, and 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 351 

furnish them with the means of subsistence ; and as preaching to 
empty seats will not make the citizens religious, it must secure 
the necessary attendance upon the instructions which it provides. 
Jf all this is done voluntarily — if a sufficient number of men will 
become such preachers, of their own accord, and if the people 
will hear them and support them of their own accord, very well. 
The State in that case need not use its power. Still, even then, 
the State must keep an eye on the subject; must know whether 
these things are done to such extent as its necessities require, and 
if there is any deficiency, must use its strong arm U) supply it. 
Are we ready for this ? Shall we act on principles which inevi- 
tably conduct us to such a result? 

This reasoning has not been invented just to serve as a scare- 
crow on the present occasion. Ivf;ad the arguments of Dr. Chal- 
mers in favor of an established church. lt<'ad the arguments of 
any PJnglish high-churchman on the same subject. Read the re- 
port of Victor Cousin on Education in I^rassi;i. R*;ad what has 
been written by any able advocate for the union of Church and 
State. You will find this principle, — that the State must, for its 
own safety, secure the religious instruction of the people, — dis- 
tinctly announced, and made the basis of all their reasonings. In 
the writings of those of them who mention this country, you will 
find the neglect 0/ this principle charged upon us, as the funda- 
mental error of our iastitutions — as the great political blunder 
which mu.st, sooner or later, work our ruin. From this principle 
they infer the necessity of an established religion — of a clergy 
provided, commissioned and support^^d by the State. And their 
logic is without fault. Only grant them this principle, and there 
is no possibility of avoiding their conclusion. We must give up 
that principle or consent to have a Church established by law, the 
ally and servant of the Slate. 

The principle is false. The people should give character to 
the State, and not the State to the people. Such is the funda- 
mental idea of American Republicanism. With us, the State 
exists for the people, and not the people for the State. The 
people are to make the Stnt^i what they think it should fje, and 
not to be made by the State into what the State would have thera. 
In the heathen republi'-s of antiquity, and the infidel republic of 
France, the individual citizen was not recognized as having any 
interests too sacred for the State to interfere with. Of course 
the despotism of the majority was absolute and unlimited. The 
citizen had no rights which it might not invade — not even the 
right of thinking his own thoughts and forming his own charac- 
ter. He must think and be just what the State demanded of its 
citizens. The Spartan system of education by the State, accord- 



352 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

ing to wliicli every child was to be taken in infancy, and made 
into just such a thing as the State supposed itself to need, was 
only the thorough carrying out of this idea. But Christianity 
has taught us that the individual has interests which are spiritual 
and eternal, and are therefore more sacred than any interests of 
the State, which are only temporal ; that the individual is directly 
responsible to his Maker for his religious character, and the State 
cannot relieve him of that responsibility, and may not interfere 
with it. On our theory, mind is free ; the right of private opin- 
ion is sacred ; and public opinion may not, in any way, prescribe 
to the individual what he is to think. The State, therefore, can- 
not take the formation of religious character into its hands. It 
must leave that duty to those whom God will, in the end, hold 
responsible for its performance ; that is, to the citizens as indivi- 
duals. It is not true that the State has a right to do, or to 
secure the doing of, Avhatever is indispensable to its own safety. 
It must, at whatever hazard, respect the inalienable rights of the 
individual citizens. The State must consent to be dependent on 
them for its safety ; to rely on them, as individuals, for the per- 
formance of duties, without the performance of which its ruin 
is mevitable. It must rely on the people to give religion that 
prevalence which the safety of the State requires. It must rely 
on the people to do this, not acting as a whole, through the State 
as their instrument, and thus taking away the rights of indivi- 
duals ; but on the people, acting as individuals, or in such asso- 
ciations as they think it their duty to foi-m for that purpose. True, 
the citizens may neglect their duty, and the State be ruined. But 
exemption from danger is not to be expected. Every State is 
always in some degree of danger, and always must be ; and all 
expei'ience proves that the danger is quite as little on our system 
as on any other ; that where the care of religion is left to the 
people, it is quite as efficiently promoted as when the State 
luidertakes to secure its prevalence. Those who call our Govern- 
ment infidel, because it so sacredly regards the Christian rights 
of every citizen, wholly misunderstand the matter. 

As, then, the State is not bound to teach religion at all, it is 
mider no necessity of teaching it in the form in which it is held 
by some sect, or number of sects ; it need not establish or main- 
tain sectarian schools. It can do all its appropriate work without 
them. 

Still, no reason appears from anything that has been said, why 
the State should refuse to teach any important and universally 
admitted truth. It may teach the universally admitted rules of 
moral conduct and principles of moral obligation. By doing this, 
it invades no man's liberty — it interferes with the exercise of no 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 353 

man's rights. It does for each man's children only Avhat he him- 
self believes ouglit to be done. Nor is the State obliged to fix 
very definite boandaril^s, applicable to all its schools, between what 
may be taught in them and what may not. It may safely leave 
something to the free Avorkiiig of y)ul)lic sentiment in different 
})arts of its territorj^ and may lawfully presume that no injury is 
done where no one complains. If the people of a certain district 
employ a religious teacher, and are satisfied with his management 
of their school, and no remonstrance is heard from any quarter, 
tlie State may lawfully presume that all is right. Nor is it a 
duty to heed every murmur of the vicious. The teacher of a 
school in any part of Orange street might inculcate all the duties 
growing out of the seventh and eighth commandments, however 
some of the inhabitants might dislike them. Comj)]aints and re- 
monstrances that evidently grow out of the love of crime, are 
themselves immoral, and the State is not bound to lieed them. It 
need regard only such remonstrances as may ])ossibly be consci- 
entious. 

This indulgence, liowcver, does not extend to sectarian schools. 
They are established for the very purpose of teaching the pecu- 
liarities of some sect ; and there is no peculiarity of any sect, 
against which some one lias not conscientious objections ; none, 
for tlie teaching of which some honest men are not conscientiously 
unwilling to })ay their money. The State cannot presume that 
there is no honest objection against them. They are instituted 
on purpose to teach that against Avhich every one knows there are 
objections. They are established because what they are to teach 
is objected against, and cannot be taught in the public schools. 
By declaring themselves sectarian, they declare themselves to be 
such as the State ought not to support. 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 
[From the Jotu-nal of Commerce, January t.3, 1841.] 

Since the publication of our former i-emaiks on this subject, a 
decision has been had in the Board of Aldeimen on the appli- 
cation of the Catholics for a separate common-school money. As 
was anticipated, the Board decided against the application almost 
unanimously. It might therefore seem useless to continue our re- 
marks ; but we had and have other aims than merely to influence 
the decision of the Common Council. We wish to dissipate, so 
far as in us lies, the fog whicli has been thrown around the sub- 
ject, under pretext of a special regard for religion and a special 



354 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

horror of infidelity. We trust we are not behind the CathoUcs in 
both these respects, according to our ideas of rehgion and infidel- 
ity, but we hold tliat there are other and better ways of promoting 
the one and avoiding the other, than by a union of Church and 
State. This latter expedient has been thoroughly tried in the old 
world, and has essentially failed. In this countr}' a different sys- 
tem has been tried, and the results, thus far, have been most 
cheering. 

Some maintain that sectarian schools must exist, because, they 
say, all others are virtually infidel schools. They say, religion 
cannot be taught except in some particular form ; that the adlie- 
rents of any particular form are a sect ; that to exclude everj^thing 
sectarian from our schools is to exclude religion in every parti- 
cular form in which it exists ; and that this makes them infidel 
schools. Hence it is argued that sectarian schools ought to ex- 
ist ; and the argument, if carried out, would lead to the conclu- 
sion that none others ought to exist, and that the State should 
bestow its whole patronage on sectarian schools. 

But if this argument is sound, how shall we avoid the reproach 
of having infidel schools ? By choosing some one sect, or two or 
three sects, whose doctrines are to be taught in school, as the 
State rehgion? We never shall agree to that. Shall the State 
put all sects on a level, and support them all alike ? What must 
be the influence of a decision, by the authority of the State, that 
all sects are equally worthy of its patronage — that the religion of 
one sect is just as good as that of anotlier ? Evidently, to beget 
contempt for all the peculiar doctrines of Christianity. What is 
the language of such a decision to all who attend school ? " Chil- 
dren," it says, " you must have some religious belief. You must 
believe that the wicked will be punished after death eternally, or 
that they will not be punished at all ; but it is of no importance 
which of the two you believe. You must believe that the Pope 
is Christ's Vicar, or that he is Anti-Christ, no matter which." It 
would teach children to regard all religious doctrines with perfect 
indifference. It would teach them to believe that no doctrine has 
any better claim to be regarded as truth, or as important to their 
temporal or eternal welfare, than its opposite. It would teach 
them to condemn all decided preference for one doctrine over an- 
other, as mere bigotry. In short, it would teach an infidelity 
just like that of some French statesmen of the present day, wlio 
have no faith in Christianity as a system of truth, but who wish 
to have it taught, because the good of the State requires that the 
people should have some religion. 

The State may with propriety decide that the members of all 
sects have equal civil rights, and shall enjoy equal political privi- 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 355 

leges ; but it has no right to decide the question, whether the re- 
ligion of one sect is just as good as that of another. It must leave 
the question of the truth and comparative value of different creeds, 
wholly untouched ; for it may not give one the preference over 
others ; and by deciding that all are equally good and true, it 
teaches infidelity. A school system which teaches the doctrines 
of all sects indifferently, is an infidel school system, and its infidel 
influence will inevitably be felt in eveiy school where the system 
is understood. Tliey will all be infidel schools, though in half of 
them the Assembly's Catechism itself be committed to memory 
by every child that attends ; for the system teaches that other 
children are learning opposite doctrines, which are just as good. 
The reproach of infidelity is inciuTcd, and not avoided, by decid- 
ing that all creeds are worthy to stand on a level with each other. 

But it is not true that schools in which no religion is taught 
are of course infidel schools. A school may be established for 
teaching a particular branch of education, and may, without ex- 
posing itself to any just reproach, confine itself to the object for 
which it was established. A writing-school indicates no error 
concerning arithmetic, grammar or geography, by confining itself 
to instruction in penmanship. Nor does a school instituted ex- 
pressl}'- for teaching these four studies, and these only, teach any 
error in astronomy by omitting all mention of that science. Nor 
does a school, instituted by the State for the express purpose of 
teaching certain rudiments of secular learning, teach its pupils any 
error concerning religion, by merely confining itself to its own 
business. 

With us, public schools are not, and cannot be, places for com- 
plete education ; and they ought not to be anywhere. It ought 
to be understood, that the whole work of forming the character 
is not committed to the schoolmaster. There is something which 
the parent must do personally, or he cannot be innocent. There 
is a part in the work, which belongs to the pastor, and which he 
must perform himself, or be to blame. It is very true, that many 
parents, from indolence, or distaste for religious duties, and from 
other motives, wish to throw their burden on the schoolmaster ; 
but it ought not to be done. It is true, too, that some pastors 
would be glad to have the schoolmaster perform a part of their 
duties ; but they have no right to be gratified. In the proper 
division of the labor of education, the formation of religious char- 
acter falls to ])arents and pastors ; and the State system of edu- 
cation should not be reproached with infidelity, because it leaves 
their work for them to do. If they need aid in the performance 
of their duty, the Sabbath-school is at their command ; and if that 
is not sufficient, other means may be devised, to whatever extent 



856 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

the necessities of faithful and industrious parents and pastors can 
require. 

Let it be understood, then, that our public schools are not in- 
tended and do not profess to give a complete education ; that 
they undertake only to give instruction in certain departments, 
and leave other departments to those whose duty it is to attend 
to them. Such an arrangement, well understood and adhered to, 
Avill teach no error, will exert no irreligious influence. Nothing 
about it even implies that religion is unimportant, or that children 
are to be brought up in ignorance of its doctrines and duties. 

But, if tlie formation of religious character is thus left to the 
voluntary labors of the people, — of the churches, the pastors, the 
parents, — will it not be neglected ? Doubtless it will, to some 
extent ; and the result, to the same extent, will be evil. But that 
evil seems to be unavoidable, so long as men are found who 
neglect their dut}'. No experience of any nation warrants us to 
expect, that teaching religion by law would at all diminish it. 
Greater faithfulne-os in parents, pastors and churches seems to be 
the only remedy. It is very natural for the Church to be afraid 
of hard work, and to wish to finish oft' some difficult labor at once 
and effectually, by calling in the strong arm of the State. The 
experiment has often been tried ; but neither the Church nor the 
world has ever been the better for it. If the Church will not do 
its own work, it must remain imdone, and both the Church and 
the world must take the consequences. 

But this same sophism will show itself and must be met in an- 
other shape. It will be said that Christianity requires every man 
to act the Christian in every employment and relation of life, — in 
teaching school, as well as in everything else ; and that to act 
otherwise is practical infidelity. Very true ; but what is the proper 
inference ? Men must act like Christians in building steamboats, 
making shoes, grinding scythes, and mending pens ; and we must 
remember, there is no such tiling, actually existing, as Christian- 
ity in general, not in the form of some sect. How is this de- 
mand of duty to be met ? How are men to perform all these 
duties like Christians ? Must they all be done in sectarian estab- 
lishments ? Certainly not. Men can act from Christian motives, 
on Cliristian principles, and with a Christian spirit, in the per- 
formance of any duty whatever, though they neither sail in secta- 
rian ships, work in sectarian shops, nor teach sectarian schools. 
Nor can even an apparent neglect of Christian duty be justly 
charged upon them because, in each of the relations of life, they 
attend to its appropriate duties, and leave the appropriate duties 
of others for others to perform. 

This Protean sophism takes still another form. It is said that 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 357 

all education which is not based upon Christianity is infidel edu- 
cation. This is true in a certain sense ; but not in a sense which 
proves the necessity of sectarian schools. That basis of education 
which Christianity must furnish need not be laid in public schools. 
It may be laid elsewhere, by the labors of the family, and of the 
Church. 

What is meant by Christianity being the basis of education ? 
That it must be the basis of instruction in each branch of study ? 
In what sense is it the basis of instruction in arithmetic ? What 
are its bearings on the multiplication-table ? What influence 
must Christianity exert, in order that the rule for extracting the 
square root may not be an infidel rule "? A moment's conside- 
ration may convince any one, that Christianity has nothing to do 
with arithmetic, except to dictate the motives and temper with 
which it should be studied, and the uses to wJiich it should be 
applied. And so of the studies of our public schools gene- 
rally. Christianity, from the nature of the subject, cannot be 
the basis of that part of education, except as it is the basis of the 
character with Avhich it should be acquired and used. Those 
studies are in no sense inferences from Christianity, or from 
any of its doctrines. It is as absurd to say that they are invested 
with an infidel character if Christianity is not taught in the same 
school-room, as it would be to say that arithmetic is made ungram- 
matical, by teaching it and grammar in separate rooms. Chris- 
tianity should certainly be the basis of the plan which every man 
forms for the education of his children, and of the character which 
every system of education aims to produce ; but it is not, it cannot 
be, the basis of each branch of instruction, in such a sense as 
makes it necessary that the}' should all be taught in the same 
5cnoOi. 

Turn the subject which way we will, it is not necessary that 
every school should be either sectarian or infidel. We are not shut 
up to any such alternative. Sectarian schools may be very con- 
venient and very proper in some circumstances. It may some- 
times be best that private schools, whose })Uj)ils are removed from 
parental oversight, should be of that character. But there is no 
necessity that they should form a part or the whole of a system 
of means provided and sustained by the State for the instructi<jn 
of all its citizens. The State can do all its appropriate work 
without them ; and if parents, pastors, and churches, also do' 
theirs, the whole work of education will be done. 



358 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, January 18, 1841.] 

The objections against sectarian schools being supported by 
the State have been partly anticipated in our former remarks ; 
but they deserve a separate consideration. 

If the State engages in this work at all, it must either make a 
selection among sects, and support the schools of some and not 
of others, or it must support the schools of all sects. The 
former w^ill never do. It would be the establishment of a State 
religion. The legislators who should begin the work would be 
put out of office at the next election, and their work would 
be luidone with all possible haste. Supporting the schools of all 
sects, — as has been shown already, — would be a measure of infi- 
del tendency. It would teach children, that, of the contra- 
dictory doctrines of different sects, one is no better entitled 
to our regard than another. It would teach them to regard all 
forms of i-eligion, as the State regards them, — with equal indif- 
ference. Placing all creeds on a level, wlien they cannot all be 
true, is virtually saying that none of them are entitled to be 
received as truth, or that truth, on this subject, is unimportant. 
If the State supports sectarian schools, this bad influence is un- 
avoidable. 

Another evil would be the needless and hurtful multiplication 
of schools. Men born and bred in cities can but partially under- 
stand the force of this argument ; but in the agricultural regions, 
which in fact constitute nearly the whole of every State in the 
Union, except perhaps in Rliode Island, the evil would be abso- 
lutely intolerable. In every neighborhood tliere must be as 
many schools as there are sects. School distiicts must be of 
such moderate extent, that a child can, witliout hardsliip, walk 
twice a day from the circumference to the center. They can 
seldom contain one hundred scholars, and often not more than 
twenty- five. For these, there must be two, three, four or more 
schools, according to the number of sects into which the parents 
happen to be divided. How are they all to be supported ? 
Evidently, the requisite amount of funds caimot be obtained ; 
and instead of one good school, sufficient for the wants of all, 
kept during the whole or nearly the whole year, each sect will 
have a cheap and nearly Avortliless school, for only a few weeks 
in a year. 

It is of no use to say that this universal division of schools 
ueed not be. It is one of those things which, though apparently 
they need not be, certainly will be. If the State supports the 
schools of one sect, another will make the demand, and it must 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 359 

be granted. Another, and another, and finally all, will follow 
the example. If the plan begins in the cities, it must soon be 
extended to the larger villages, and then to the smaller, and 
then to the farming districts. There is no stopping-place, any- 
where betwixt the beginning and the end. 

Nor let it be said that some sects resemble each other so 
closely that they need not have separate schools. In their own 
view, their differences are such as to demand distinct ecclesi- 
astical organizations and expensive arrangements for worship. 
They think their differences important, and will not consent that 
the State should judge of their importance. If some sects 
receive the aid of the State in propagating iheir peculiarities by 
means of schools, others will demand it, and must have it. 
There can be no peace, till there are in each school district as 
many schools as thei-e are sects among its inhabitants. This 
point has already received a partial illustration. The Roman 
Catholics argue, that they differ so much from the Protestants, 
that they must have separate schools ; while the Protestants are 
so much alike, that they can all use the same schools. But who 
shall be the judge in this matter ? If they are allowed to decide 
whether their own peculiarities are important enough to justify 
separate schools, every Protestant sect must be allowed the same 
privilege, and, in the use of it, will demand schools of its own. 

Another evil would be the increase of sectarian hostility. 
This, too, would be felt most powerfully in the agricultural dis- 
tricts and smaller villages, which, be it remembered, contain 
almost the whole people. In each of those districts, each sect 
would be anxious to have as large a school as possible, and 
therefore as many adherents in the district as possible. Hence 
efforts at proselytism would be vigorous and persevering. In 
such small communities, the transfer of a single man from one 
party to another would be an event of great relative importance, 
and would excite deep and strong feeling. The change of senti- 
ment in a single tax-payer would sensibly affect the pocket of 
every one, both of his old and his new associates. Every mem- 
ber of every sect would be stimulated to make proselytes, by his 
conscientious preference for what he regards as truth ; by his 
love of victory ; by his regard for his own purse, and desire of 
help in meeting expenses, and by his desire to retaliate on rivals, 
who, he supposes, resort to unfair means of gaining advantages. 
The compound would make a most unlovely spirit, while the con- 
scientiousness would sanctify it in the eyes of him who was gov- 
erned by it. And there would be at least an annual struggle of 
the sects, to get the names, the influence and the pecuniary aid 



360 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

of those who belong to no sect ; and of those, mnnj'^ would be- 
come violent partisans, without a particle of religious principle. 

Each sect, too, would wish to have as many schools as possi- 
ble ; and the leaders, of each would be laying and executing 
plans for the establishment of schools in all the districts in the 
land. Each supreme dignitary or central board would be send- 
ing out appeals, stating that " there are so many districts in 
which we have no schools ;" that "in such, and such, and such a 
place, there are a few members of our church, who, with a little 
aid from their more favored brethren, might sustain schools ;" 
and reports from traveling agents, telling in what places they 
liad excited a desire, or a desire might be easily excited, " for 
schools of our order." The reader, if he can bear the sight, may 
finish the picture for himself. 

This last mentioned evil would be aggravated by another, — 
the introduction of sectarianism into politics ; the transformation 
of the various sects into so nianv political factions, each plotting 
for the promotion of its own interests at elections and in legisla- 
tion, and all bargaining with each other and with politicians for 
the accomplishment of favorite objects. This will be inevitable, 
if the several sects, as such, are to receive money from the State. 
The thought has already been conceived, and tliB beginning has 
been made. The Propaganda Society of Lyons, in their " An- 
nals" lately published, say of the Roman Catholics in the United 
States : " Their xmion secures for them an infallible preponder- 
ance, in the midst of the perpetual divisions of heretical ojiin- 
ions. In the Atlantic States, they form a powerful minority. 
In the greater part of the Western States, they form a plurality, 
and at some points perhaps a majority of the inhabitants." 
Those who talk thus of " infallible preponderance," secured by 
united and powerful minoi-ities, pluralities and majorities, are 
certainly thinking of voles, of elections, of legislation, of acting a 
part in politics. Wherever the thought mav have originated, 
the Roman Catholic leaders in New York have declared them- 
selves ready to act according to it. They have offered the votes 
of their sect to any political party that will give them what they 
call "justice." If they succeed, some other sect Avill follow 
their example ; and the further it goes, the more others will feel 
themselves compelled to adopt the same course in self-defense ; 
and, in the end, the various sects will become so many political 
factions. If there is any sect whose religious purity will not be 
injured by such a change, it must be some one which has very 
little purity to be injured. 

Nor is this all, or the worst of it. After the spirit of sectari- 
anism has been thus stimulated to a preternatural and malignant 



SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 361 

activity, find then poisoned by its allianco with politics, tne chil- 
dren of every sect are to be inoculat(;d witli it in infancy, and its 
growth is to be effectually nurtured by their education in sec- 
tarian schools. People need not hope that the sectarianism of a 
generation thus trained will be like that which they now wit- 
ness. Commencing before the understanding is develtjpcd, and 
before any reason for it can be comprehended ; fostered by every 
opportunity of childish emulation or antagonism between the 
members of rival schools ; embiliered, first by sympathizing with 
the participation of their parents, and afterward by tlieir own 
participation, in every proselyting effort and every local election ; 
kept alive and increased by the constant necessity of guarding 
against the political and other machinations of rival .sects ; it 
must be a sectarianism of such malignity as no example has yet 
enabled the people of this country to understand ; and it will be 
well if the politico-religious factions thus formed abstain from 
shedding each other's blood. 

Finally, no system of sectarian schools can be made to reach 
the whole population of the State. Many families live sur- 
rounded by families of other sects, to whom they cannot consci- 
entiously intrust the education of their children. Multitudes be- 
long to no sect ; and a large part of them will obstinately refuse 
to j)lace their children in sectarian schools. The geographical 
system, of dividing the whole State into districts, with a school 
in each, must be given up ; for the sects will supersede it so ex- 
tensively, that the remnant will not be worth preserving. And 
when tlie geographical system is abandoned, there will be no 
security for the existence of schools in all places where they are 
needed. Numerous tracts of country may then be left without 
schools, and nobody will be held responsible for the deficiency. 
The result will be, a numerous population whom the sectarian 
system will fail to reach, growing up uneducated, and unfit to be 
free citizens of a free republic. The State cannot secure (hat 
universal diffusion of intelligence which its own safety requires, 
except by adhering to the geographical system. 

And here the argument might close ; but it seems advisable 
to notice two pleas in favor of the present Roman Catholic 
claim. It is said that they pay their proportion into the school 
fund, and have a right to an equivalent. Very true ; and they 
have an e(juivalent. While they remain in tliis country, they 
cannot escape having an equivalent. The privilege of living in 
an educated community is worth, many times over, all that tliey 
pay. But this is not all. The schools are open for tlicm, as 
well as for others. A full equivalent for their money is tendered 
to them in this form also ; and if they refuse to accept it, still 
10 



362 SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

the State has done its duty. It confers on them one benefit, 
worth far more than tlieir money, and lays another at their door, 
whicli they may use if they phrase ; and by this, the demands of 
justice are fully satisfied. 

The other argument is, that the consciences of the Roman 
Catholics require them to have sectarian schools, and we ought 
to accommodate our institutions to their consciences. The an- 
swer is easy. Their consciences are already accommodated, as 
far as they can reasonably ask to be. They are at perfect liberty 
to estabUsh as many sectarian schools, and support them as 
abundantly, and patronize them as exclusively, as their con- 
sciences require. Not the least impediment is thrown in their 
way. The law even protects them in all their lawful measures 
for this purpose ; defends them against all opposition by force 
or fraud ; protects their school-houses, and other property ; en- 
forces the fulfillment of contracts ; renders them all the aid it 
renders any man in any lawful business. And with this they 
ought to be content. But, it seems, their consciences go beyond 
all this, and demand an appropriation from the State Treasury, 
in support of their schools. They demand the commencement 
of a series of changes tluit would destroy our school system, and 
substitute for it, one according to their mind. This we cannot 
concede. We cannot undertake to gratify all consciences, — 
especially while they contradict each other. What if Protestant 
consciences, twenty times as numerous and quite as honest and 
well informed, demand the unbroken preservation of our district 
school system, and entire abstinence, by the State, from the sec- 
tarian ? How are both to be gratified at once ? There are 
those in the world — and if we will publicly engage to change 
our laws and institutions as their consciences require, they will 
soon be plenty among us, — whose consciences demand an hered- 
itary monarchy, with absolute power, a censorship of the press, 
the universal collection of tithes, the suppression of heresy by 
pains and penalties, and the exemption of clergy from arrest, 
and trial by the civil government for any ciime. Shall we an- 
nounce that if they will come among us, all things shall be 
arranged as their consciences require ? 

We have formed free institutions, and a system of schools as 
an important means of sustaining them. People of any country, 
and of any sect, are welcome to come among us and enjoy the 
benefit of them ; but we cannot give them up to gratify those 
who like something else better. We allow and secure perfect 
liberty of conscience to every man whose conscience will be con- 
tent with its proper employment, regulating the conduct of its 
owner. But if consciences will go beyond their proper sphere. 



THE CATHOLICS. 363 

and demand the surrender of any of our free institutions, or the 
destruction or derangement of any of our means of sustaining 
them, we cannot gratify sucli consciences. If any man's rehgion 
debars liim from enjoying any of the privileges whicli our coun- 
try ofi'ers freely to all, it is his misfortune, or his happiness, ac- 
cording as his religion is right or wrong ; but we cannot afford 
to desti-oy any of those privileges, to gratify the few who deem 
it unlawful to x;se them. We must keep up our system of public 
schools which arc not sectarian, for the benefit of all, leaving 
those who think they know a better way, at perfect liberty to 
walk in it, which is all that they can reasonably ask. If any 
man's religion subjects him to peculiar expenses, that too is bis 
misfortune, — or a peculiar favor of Providence, as the case may 
be. It is an affair between him and his Maker, and not between 
him and the State ; and we cannot remove or weaken any of the 
supports of freedom, for the sake of reducing his religious ex- 
penses to an equality with those of other men. 



THE CATHOLICS. 

[F7om the Journal of Commerce, February 13, 1841.] 

****** 

We have no fears that Romanism will subjugate this free 
country, assisted though it be, by all the powers of the Leopold 
Foundation. But we know that if Americans were to allow 
themselves to be seduced by promises or awed by thi-eats, our 
liberties would soon be gone ; and here we shall take the liberty 
to say, that the conduct of the priests and leading men, ia hold- 
ing Irish Catholic meetings for the purpose of subverting the 
institutions of this country and getting possession of its school 
funds, is impudence of no ordinary cast, and shows that some- 
thing has stultified their perceptions. What scorn would Ameri- 
cans justly bring upon themselves, were they to make such 
attempts upon the monasteries of Spain, or the domestic institu- 
tions of any other country of Europe ! What scorn, if, instead of 
sending Missionaries unarmed to teach justice and temperance 
from the Bible, they should send their ships-of-war to force Pro- 
testantism and brandy on the heathen at the cannon's mouth ! 
But we say to our friend, the Irish American citizen, and all his 
bishops, go a-head. Share to the full in our liberty, and the 
protection of our good laws. Our alms-houses and the charity of 
private Protestants will make up what you leave undone for the 
wants of your swarms of ignorant and vicious poor. Our school- 



364 PURGATORY. 

house doors shall be open to their children, free of expense, and 
to please you, all the books shall be expurgated, except the Bible. 
One party or the other will pay the naturalization fee of all your 
countrymen who desire it, and after having sworn allegiance here, 
then agitate the Irish repeal and the New York school-fund as 
much as 3^ou please. Americans have most of them two eyes 
and two hands, and a heart a-piece, and we all intend to be about 
here for some years to come. 



PURGATORY. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, August 6, 1841.] 

It seems that Joe Smith has put purgatory into the list of his 
superstitions. He has also fixed an easy wa}^ to get people out 
of that difficulty, and he does right ; for the bright idea of the 
whole matter is just that very thing of getting them out. There 
is very little money to be made by a place of eternal punishment, 
but a place which people can be helped out of by their friends who 
are left behind, — that has yielded a larger revenue to the priests, 
than any bther religious doctrine in the world. The Mormon 
doctrine is, that any man to whom the magnetic cord of mysteri- 
ous influence has been passed down by regular succession, not 
from Peter, but from Joe Smith, may baptize a friend of the de- 
parted heretic in the name of the heretic, and that substitution 
is all the same as if the heretic had been himself baptized, and he 
is by his proxy thereupon brought into the true Church of the Lat- 
ter Day Saints, and so of course is at once out of all difficulty. 
For this good purpose two old soldiers have recently been bap- 
tized in Illinois by a Mormon elder, one by the name and on be- 
half of George Washington, and one by the name and on behalf 
of William Henry Harrison. This plan of competition by the 
Mormons must be dangerous to the Roman priests, for it operates 
quicker, and is cheaper than masses, and just as good exactly. 



: THE SCHOOL QUESTION. 

i 

[From the Journal of Commerce, October 30, 1841.] 
* ***** 

But that which interests a very large and substantial part of 
our citizens, more than all other questions before the public, is 
the attack which the Catholic priests have made on our public 
schools. The schools of this city are its glory and its hope. 



THE SCHOOL QUESTION. 365 

They are of the very first order of usefulness. They are purely 
literary institutions, except that the Bible, the common book of 
all Christians, is read once a day. The school-books have been 
expurgated by all the various religious sects until there is nothing 
left which any one complains of. The schools are located conve- 
niently in all parts of the city, and act upon a common plan ; so 
that when a child goes from one to another, he finds in his new 
school the same books, rules and regulations, to which he had be- 
come accustomed. 

These schools are open witliout expense, even for books, to all 
the children of the city. The foreigner, as soon as he arrives in 
the city, can send his family to as good schools as the world 
affords, without money and without price. But the Catholic 
priests are not willing to have the children of their people attend 
these schools, and the Bishop of Basileopolis has accordingly 
led off in a grand crusade against them. The great and only ma- 
terial complaint is, that the Bible is read in these schools. This, 
according to the Bishop, renders them sectarian ; which prevents 
his people from attending them, and so deprives them of their 
rights. If the Bible could only be read with the Notes of the 
Romish Church, that would cure the matter of its sectarianism, 
in the Bishop's opinion. So if the Bishop should take it into his 
head that there should be a cross painted over the Speaker's chair 
in the Assembly Room, at Albany, or erected at the top of the 
cupola of that building, he would then be able to show that 
the plain walls and plain cupola were so sectarian that Catho- 
lics were deprived of their privilege of serving in the Legisla- 
ture, — that of course the right of suffrage was useless, — and that 
all the Catholics in the State were disfranchised. The very mo- 
dest claim of the Catholics is just this, that the schools shall be 
made Roman Catholic schools, or else the Roman Catholics will 
be " deemed and taken" to be most wickedly deprived of their 
rights. 

The real question as to the schools is one vital to our institu- 
tions. None but a Roman Catholic would have had the effron- 
tery, or even the thouglit of making such an issue. The ques- 
tion is simply whether our schools shall be public and free to all, 
or turned into subserviency to a foreign sect, whose principles are 
at war with the whole fabric of our institutions. The difficulty 
with the Bishop is really not so much that a chapter in the Bible 
is read in the morning, — though that is a great Americanism ; for 
the Bible is the only book of liberty, — but the grand difficulty is, 
that Catholic children who go about, slipping beads, crossing 
themselves, and so much afraid of their priests, that they dare 
not think without permission, do, by associating with American 



366 PROSPECTS OF POPERY. 

boys, learn to hold up their heads, think for themselves, count 
then* rights instead of their beads, and throw off the priestcraft 
which holds them in base subjection. Thus the boys turn Ame- 
ricans, and the Bishop loses his sheep, or as the French parson 
said, his " dear moutons." 



THE POOR POPE. 

[FroTTJ the Journal of Commerce, October 8, 1842.] 

Popery seems to be acting with considerable vigor in its 
extremities. In the Sandwich Islands its priests are thick on all 
the islands, doing what they can to counteract the labors of Pro- 
testant missionaries, who first raised there the standard of the 
Cross, surrounded by books and schools. In this country the 
Papists seem to think that popery and liberty are here to find a 
safe retreat from the dangers of the old world. Here popery is 
sought to be sustained even by such desperate measures as the 
establishment of schools, the publication of newspapers, and the 
submission of questions for decision to the people ! This process 
will bleach the Ethiopian's skin and take out the leopard's spots. 
Yet, it is going on in spite of the protestations of the Pope 
against " the most pestilent impudence" of publishing books. 
Poor old man ! his secular power is circumscribed to a small ter- 
ritory, the revenues of which are insufficient for any important 
purpose, and he has not credit enough to borrow. His own peo- 
ple, too, especially the middle classes, inoculated with the pesti- 
lent epidemic of the times, are itching for knowledge, and send- 
ing to the Protestant portions of Europe and to free America for 
books — books — and reading with the avidity with which a starving 
man eats. The authority of the Pope will soon be confined to 
spiritual matters, and in this he will be obliged ere long to ac- 
knowledge that every man is a pope, and consent to govern in 
accordance with the opinions of the masses. The day of inves- 
tigation has risen upon the world, and it will be a long day. 



PROSPECTS OF POPERY. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, February 7, 1843.] 

As to the old Pope, it is best to watch him, and give him hard 
blows, if, forgetful of where he is, he seeks to play his pranks 
here as he has done in Europe. But if, afflicted with the rebellion 



PROSPECTS OF POPERY. 367 

of his children on the other side of the Atlantic, he stretches 
his aged eyes to this free country, and hopes here to head off and 
turn back the reformation, let him take what comfort he can in 
liis dreamy fancy. So if the icebergs of the North find them- 
selves hot pressed by the returning lord of the summer, and ima- 
gine that they can better sustain their power by removing to the 
equator, let them do so. All that the equatorial regions need to 
care for is, that no clouds obscure the sun. Popery is in more 
trouble here than is generally supposed. Doubtless there are 
vast importations of the article, of the very strongest quality ; 
and large sums of money are sent over from Europe to bring us 
back to the holy harlot mother ; but the work of conversion, so 
far as our observation extends, goes on but slowly. After all the 
foreign remittances, the Catholic churches, at least in this city, 
are deeply in debt. Bishop Hughes stated, not long ago, that in 
the aggregate they were in debt to the full value of the property ; 
and in our opinion, that was a very niodeiate estimate. The 
priests have persuaded the faithful servant girls and servant men 
to take their savings from the savings-banks and loan them to 
build churches. If we understand the matter, the church in 
James street, and that in Chambers street, have many of these 
persons knocking at their doors, and knocking hard for the pay- 
ment of bonds, but with very little success. But these are minor 
matters. The Irish Catholics come here to be free ; they are 
great democrats, and their priests are obliged to be democrats, 
too. They are foi-ever talking of liberty and personal rights, and 
the Constitution, and the laws. After all this outcry for liberty, 
it is not so easy to obhterate all personal rights, and bring the 
people back to abjectness. It is a great embarrassment that the 
Head of the Church is a foreign prince. A still greater difficulty 
is the necessity which the priests find themselves under of defending 
themselves by means of a public press. There is .nothing which the 
present Pope counts so " pestilent" as this boundless liberty of print- 
ing. Heretofore Rome has shut up argument in dungeons ; but she 
has been obliged to answer argument by argument here, and that 
before the tribunal of the people. She is drawn to the press for de- 
fense, and thei'e the worst features of the system her priests have 
never dared to defend, or even to confess. There is nothing which 
can inflict so deadly a wound on the beast as a goose-quill. Another 
difficulty is, that in order to preserve Catholics from straying away 
from the faith, their fears have constantly to be appealed to, and 
with a degree of seventy which is dangerous to those who apply 
it. Catholics would send their children to the public schools and 
the Sunday-schools ; they would go to Protestant churches and 
to the devotions of Protestant families, but (or fear of the priests 



368 PROSPECTS OF POPERY. 

at the confessional. People do not like such a government, and 
.it must always be a dangerous resort where there is really no 
power to enforce the threatened penalties. In the vaiious docu- 
ments which we have published, there is abundant proof that the 
fires of discord which rage in the bosom of the Mother Church 
are of the hottest sort. There is no Protestant denomination in 
the United States which would think of using such language 
towards its clergy as that which was used by the wardens of 
St. Louis' Church at New Orleans, or the people of St. Joseph's 
and the Harlem Church here. The unity of the Romish Church 
lias generally been little else than outside talk. The daring of 
Bishop England and Bishop Hughes has induced them to attempt 
to do great things, but they have only got into scrapes and dis- 
affected their people. The truth is, Romanism in the United States 
can neither sit still nor stir about. So far as we are acquainted, 
the conversions from Popery are much more numerous than the 
conversions to it. In fact, such is the peculiar character of its 
adlierents that they must be scattered and mixed up with Pro- 
testants in such a manner that it is more than the wit of the 
pi'iesthood can do, to preserve them from becoming intelligent and 
independent. As a matter of fact, we know that, to a great extent, 
the Irish, particularly the men, after they have lived here ten 
years, will not pay half so much to the priests as when they first 
arrive. The number of Catholics is increasing, but in a smaller 
ratio than Protestants. In 180V, William Wirt, in a letter to a 
young student in Kentucky, wrote, " the constant intercourse 
between Kentucky and the Spanish settlements will make it neces- 
sary that you should be well acquainted with that language." It 
is hardly possible to believe that such a sentiment should have 
been true so recently. Where arc now those settlements of 
Si)anish Catholics ? Swept away by the waves of Protestant emi- 
gration. Where are the Catholics who were born in this country ? 
Look at the multitudes who pour out of St. Peter's, and listen to 
their conversation. They have almost all of tliem foreign face.s 
and a foreign brogue. Tlie grand difficulty which prevents Catho- 
lics from being more rapidly transformed into independent Ameri- 
can citizens is, the oppressions which Protestantism has practiced 
upon them in their native land. They have been goaded to exas- 
peration by the tyranny of the Established Church of England. 
They come here thinking very naturally that all Protestants are 
such unjust oppressors. Then here and elsewhere they have 
heon charged at random with a great many things which were 
untrue, and others which they thought untrue. Let us teach 
them a new lesson ; and while we leprove the arrogance and 
tyranny of their priests, as we would reprove the same things in 



PROPOSED CATHOLIC REFORMS. 369 

any otlier men, let us teach them that Protestants are as liberal 
as they are free ; that they have imbibed the benevolent spirit of 
Jesus Christ, and that they rely on truth alone to uphold their 
opinions. Then, although the Roman Catholic Church may 
remain as a distinct denomination, its members will be intelligent 
and free Americans, and no more dangerous than the adherents 
of other denominations. 



\_From the Journal of Commerce, July 8, 1843.] 

PROPOSED CATHOLIC REFORMS. 

^E do Bishop Hughes the justice to publish the report of the 
mixed committee appointed under his auspices to investigate the 
burning of the Bibles at Corbu, Clinton county, N. Y. It shows 
that Catholic priests have learned something by residing in this 
country, and that a green one from France is liable to make great 
mistakes by behaving here just as he would at home. Certainly 
the American Catholic priests have done right in this matter, and 
we trust that now the Rev. Father O'Reiliey, who assailed us so 
furiously for stating the case at first, will do us justice, and con- 
fess that it is possible for a heretical layman to be in the right, 
and a priest of the Church in the wrong, especially where facts 
are to be investigated before the whole people, and not within the 
thick walls of the Inquisition. There are a few more bad prac- 
tices of the Rorai.sh priests which, as friends, we tell them cannot 
be maintained here, and had better be disavowed at once. One 
of them is the requiiing of the poor Catholics to surrender the 
Bibles which have been given them, to be destroyed 2'>ri^<^telij. 
You cannot keep people from reading and thinking, in this coun- 
try. Another thing which is exceedingly unpopular, is the es- 
pionage which is exercised in families, and the prohibition to ser- 
vants, of uniting in family devotions. Another thing is, taking 
money for praying souls out of purgatory. Praying souls out of 
purgatory is all a humbug to raise money ; and the people know 
too much to sustain it much longer in this country. Auricular 
confession will go by and by, and then, by purging the priest- 
hood of dissolute men, making a Head to the Church in the United 
States, and adopting the Bible as the rule of faith, Romanism will 
stand some chance of success among us. Luckily you never did 
here sell indulgences to eat meat on Friday, for three shilhngs 
a-piece, as is done now in South America, and so that is not to be 
relinquished. But Popery must be modernized if it is to succeed 
here. We trust that Bishop Hughes will be able to convince his 
16* 



370 REBELLIOUS CATHOLICS. 

Holiness of the expediency of burning no more Bibles in the 
United States, and of hereafter introducing French priests by 
way of New York, and not by Montreal ; and that he will also 
be able to procure from the Pope a dispensation in favor of the 
improvements which we have suggested. If he finds any diffi- 
culty in accomplishing so desirable an end, we shall be happy to 
supply him gratuitously with "Facts and Reasonings on Church 
Governments," which we are sure must convince all the Vatican 
that the mode of doing things in this country is very different 
from what it was in Rome during the Middle Ages, or is even 
now. 



[From the Journal of Commerce, September 22, 1843.] 

REBELLIOUS CATHOLICS. 

The New Orleans papers contain paragraphs the substance of 
which is, that recently a lodge of Free Masons have laid the 
foundation-stone of a tomb, in the cemetery attached to the Ca- 
thedral, whose wardens have heretofore shown so much disposi- 
tion to pin their faith on their own sleeve, especially as to secular 
matters ; that the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese sent, 
through the Rector of the Church, to inquire of the wardens 
why it was that they had so desecrated grounds consecrated to 
holy purposes ; that the wardens replied that they considered 
the Bishop not a little insolent in making any such inquiry, and 
that all associations had at all times been privileged to erect 
tombs for their deceased members. So the Bishop was obliged 
to put this little matter in his pocket, and keep still ; but if his 
soliloquy could have been overheard, it would probably have been, 
" I curse these infidel wardens with all the curses which ever 
issued from the throne of St. Peter at Rome ; may their wives 
be unfaithful and their children disobedient ; may their houses 
be burned up, and their goods rot on hand ; may they have tic 
douloureux in their heads, gout in their toes, and rheumatism in all 

their bones ; may but what is the effect of all this ? The 

wives of the accursed are as faithful, and their children as 
obedient, and their property as safe, and their persons as full of 
health, as if I had spoken nothing. Oh ! that I had the powers 
of the Holy Inquisition here, as they are exercised among the 
faithful in the Old World. I would soon place these infamous 
rebels where it would be of little consequence to them how 
their families should behave, or what should become of their es- 
tates." 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 3T1 

" CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY." 
{From the Journal of Commerce, March 18, 1845.] 

This was the simple and expressive motto upon the banner of 
the students of the Roman CathoHc College at Georgetown as 
they walked in the inaugural procession. Do they mean the 
civil and religious liberty of Italy ? That con.sists in the liberty 
to believe what the Church teaches, and obey what the Church 
commands. An Italian cannot discuss any public topic in assem- 
blies, or in newspapers ; he cannot print a book, nor have a 
book by virtue of any personal right to have it ; he cannot have 
God's book at all, except by keeping it hid ; he cannot pass 
from one place to another without leave ; he cannot, even in pri- 
vate circles, express his opinions, if he has any, unless those 
opinions are approved by the government. His house is no 
castle for him, though it may be for the priest against him. Of 
liberty, stich as the American constitutions proclaim and guar- 
antee, he has none, either civil or religious. 

Do they mean the privileges which American citizens, holding 
the Catholic faith, enjoy in this country ? Civil liberty, to be 
sure, Protestantism has provided for them ; but Romanism lias 
repudiated that liberty. A Romanist even here has not the lib- 
erty to keep his or her own secn^ts, but must reveal them to the 
priest, with all matters of the family into which he chooses to 
pry. Catholic servants do not possess the liberty to attend 
family worship, with the Protestant families to which they be- 
long. Congregations which build churches cannot control the 
appropriation of their revenues, nor even hold the title-deeds of 
the property. They cannot marry except within the circle pre- 
scribed by the priest ; and if they have children, they cannot 
select the Sunday or day-school to which they shall be sent. 
We mean, that by the laws to which they subscribe, these rights 
are not acknowledged as belonging to them, by any personal and 
inherent claim, but are claimed to be controlled by the priest ; 
and the only way in which these rights can be enjoyed, is by re- 
belling against Rome and taking shelter under Protestant laws. 
As to religious liberty, a Catholic has nothing which a Protestant 
would call liberty. He has no liberty of private judgment, for 
he must believe what the Church teaches. He cannot select his 
religious teachers ; they are made for him and placed over him. 
His faith, his practice, his teachers, are all made for him accord- 
ing to the order of an old man at Rome, and other old and 
young priests, calling themselves the Church. He cannot choose 
his own food ; for he must eat fish on every Friday, except by 
indulgence from the priest; then he may eat meat. For such 



0<_ PROTECTION AGAINST CATHOLICS. 

slaves to be carrying about the banner of " Civil and Religious 
Liberty," does but excite our pity. Would they could but once 
feel what libei'ty is. The sensation would make them leap for 
joy. Liberty to investigate where we please ; to believe what 
we please, and to pi-oclaim everywhere what we believe; to 
worship as we please, when we please, and with whom we 
please ; to marry whom we love most, and educate our children 
in such ways and with such helps as we think best for them ; to 
erect our "meeting-houses," and own them and manage them 
as we please ; to study the Bible without note, comment or 
guidance, and judge for ourselves what our Father in Heaven 
says to his children ; to live within a door which no man 
can open without our consent ; to enjoy all these things and 
many moi'e, and to enjoy them, not by the consent of a priest, 
but as personal rights, given to us by God, and made in us when 
He made us ; — such a man has no need to carry " Civil and Re- 
ligious Liberty" about, stuck upon a pole ; for he is clothed by 
it, and filled with it, and exults in it. Such a man has use for a 
conscience and understanding and affections. He is God's free- 
man. 



PROTECTION AGAINST CATHOLICS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, August 28, 1845.] 

" How shall the Protestants of Ireland protect themselves 
against the Catholics ?" is the title of an article which has lately 
appeared in England, and the question is one which is exciting 
deep interest there. The true answer is, allow them their rights ; 
treat them fairly ; make government a blessing, instead of a curse 
to them. Ireland has a right to hate Protestantism, for she sees 
it hardly ever except in the shape of an oppressor. Let Catholics 
be treated with a generosity which they never exercised. Do to 
them, not as they have always done to us, but as we would that 
they should do to us. Acknowledge them as fellow-citizens, 
entitled to think for themselves and adopt their own religious 
belief, without derogation from their civil rights. Take off the 
enormous injustice of tithes to support an establishment upon 
which they never attend. The bloody feuds of past days may 
not be instantly cured, but there is no other remedy, and the 
sooner this is applied the better. We must allow to others what 
we claim for ourselves. If we claim that civil penalties shall not 
fall on us because of our faith, we must allow the same thing to 
all other sects. If we claim the liecht to examine and determine 



A CHRISTMAS SERVICE. 373 

for ourselves, we must allow tlie same right to others. There is 
no doctrine so absurd tliat oppression cannot propagate it. There 
is no falsehood so entrenched, that truth and kindness cannot dis- 
lodge it. A government which is oppressive and unjust, ought 
to be resisted ; one that is just will always find support. The 
Catholics of this countiy who have been here long enough to 
imderstand our institutions and their value to every citizen, are as 
good supporters of the government as other men. And as to 
the priests, judging from the claims which we see put forth by 
the clerical assemblies of other denominations, they are but little 
if any more hierarchical than their neighbors. Almost without 
exception the Protestant ministers claim the same divinity as dis- 
tinguisiiing their business from all other business, which each so 
scornfully and so justly scouts in all the rest. Men are men, and 
nothing more nor less ; and the different degrees of badness in 
governing systems, whether in Church or State, consist chiefly 
in their adaptation to develop tlie self-conceit, the arrogance and 
love of power, which dwell in all men, and in most of them are 
exceedingly rife and turbulent, if they have the power. The best 
remedy is the spirit of the Christian, accompanied by those great 
principles of political and religious equality which run through 
the New Testament, and are adopted in the glorious Constitution 
of our country. All men are equal in personal rights, when they 
are born, and ever afterward. Divine right belongs to man as 
made by his Creator, and ever after, when engaged in the per- 
formance of duty, and to nothing else. These principles of eter- 
nal truth, maintained and acted on, will make each man's rights 
clear, and public free discussion will array the masses against 
violence, and protect society under the benign regulation of just 
laws framed to promote the public good. Catholics and Protest- 
ants will then live securely and peacefully together. 



A CHRISTMAS SERVICE. 
\_From the Journal of Commerce, January 9, 1847.] 

If our chief pastor will inquire about the flock, he will find 
that the mixed marriages, or something else, are producing a wan- 
dering disposition in the flock. A dozen or more have joined the 
new German Catholic Congregation since their public meeting, 
and many more are reading the Bible, and interpreting it for 
themselves. In fact, the Bishop and under-shepherds read the 
Bible, and take texts for sermons from that, and not from tradi- 
tion. We had the privilege of listening on Christmas day to a 



374 A CHRISTMAS SERVICE. 

Bible sermon from the Bishop, at the Cathedral, most of which 
would have been approved in any New England pulpit. He 
quoted the Word of God as of authority, and there it lay before 
him, to guide him and all the people. It was a scene to excite 
deep reflection and ardent hope. That mortal sin for which so 
many thousands of Christ's disciples have been punished even to 
death, and with »11 imaginable cruelties, under the influence of 
the Romish hierarchy, — that sin the Bishop committed before the 
great congregation without fear ; nay, he durst not fail to commit 
it. He had the Bible in his jwsscssicni, and he read it. What 
crowds of Lollards were murdered and sent to heaven, even in Old 
England, and but a little while ago, for doing just what the Bishop 
did, and so recommended to all the people. We were glad 
to know that the Bishop would not be burned for his fault, nor 
even the Bible burned which he had been reading. It was wra- 
tifymg to see also, that although the ofiiciating priests ni a long, 
unmeaning service before and after sermon, prayed in an unknown 
tongue, yet the faithful had their prayer-books in their various 
vernaculars, praying on their own account. There were some 
things done which were ridiculous enough, to be sure. Two Bish- 
ops and all the priests appeared in women's clothes, petticoats, 
Vandykes, (fee. The Bishop spoke in his sermon of Christianity 
as having elevated woman. Certainly in dress, it was evident it 
had placed her on a level with the Bishops. An hour before 
and after sermon were passed in pantomime. Four men Avith 
broad square gold blankets, richly colored, and decorated with 
pendent sleeves, fringes, <fec., placed themselves in all possible re- 
lations to each other, bowing, prostrating themselves, putting on 
the assistant bishop's miter, and taking it off a dozen times. 
There were also some half dozen boys, in petticoats, with candles, 
and acting as Avaiters. One very grave operation Avas to take a 
richly-covered book from one place and put it in another, or 
hold an open one on the. boys' heads, Avhile a priest chanted from 
it, &c. Let no one say Ave ridicule the service. We only de- 
scribe it, and if that is ridicule, the fault is in the facts, not the 
telling of them. All these things must pass away. Priests and 
bishops must appear in men's clothes, and other garments more 
fitted for the successors of fishermen, than the gorgeous and cum- 
brous trappings, Avith candles at noon-day, with Avhich this cere- 
mony Avas performed. A generation cannot groAv up in America 
without demandinof somethinQ: more intellectual than such thinffs. 
They might make the ignoi'ance of past ages stare, and Avonder, 
and obey, but they will produce no such effect now-a-days. On 
the whole, the service of the Cathedral was full of hope. Hope, 
chiefly for Catholics, who compose so large a portion of the civil- 



THE CATHOLIC SERVICE. 375 

ized world. A better day is before them, — is upon them. They 
are rapidly rising from superstition to faith ; not that blind sub- 
mission to dictation which is called faith, yet is unworthy of the 
name, but to an intelligent investigation of God's works and 
word, a clear comprehension of their own rights, obligations and 
privileges, and an operative, purifying, ennobling faith in all that 
is proved to be true. 



THE CATHOLIC SERVICE. 

\^From the Journal of Commerce, January 19, 1847.] 

The Catholic Freeman's Journal has a very clever article com- 
menting upon our account of the service at the Cathedral on 
Christmas day. The editor is triumphantly good-natui'ed and 
veracious, though somewhat poetical, as he had a right to be. 
He is even quite gratified at our simple statement, and very kindly 
instructs us in some of the matters about which we were obliged to 
exhibit ignorance. He says that what we called broad gold blan- 
kets were " the cope, tlie chasuble and the dalmatics ;" and that 
what we called a petticoat was " the alb, a white robe worn by 
those who officiate in the sanctuary, symbolical of the purity and 
innocence of life which should adorn those who minister to the 
Lord." Should adorn ! Carefully said. We have read history 
until the last idea which any garment of that form upon a priest 
would convey to our mind would be that of purity. But it only 
emblems that which ought to be, and in the rufht Reverend wearer 
on Christmas day, is, we trust. But the impi-ession of purity would 
rise much stronger in our mind, if these women's clothes were 
transferred to honorable wives. As to the otiier hard names, we 
sliall never be able to recollect them, or, if we did, to know what 
they symbolize. Our friend does not explain them, onlj^ that 
" they are the mere outward forms," and have been the same from 
" the earliest periods of the Church." Earliest periods ! Why, 
the man does not mean to say that those old Congregationalists 
Peter and John wore such things ? They might have had blan- 
kets, but they were useful, comfortable garments, — not such 
clumsy, ill-setting things as these " gold blankets." The editor 
thinks us in so hopeful a way, that he declares — " We venture to 
say, judging from this and other evidence, that if Mr. Hale tries 
(which we hope he shall) but fifteen years more, he will be a Ca- 
tholic." We thank him for his good wishes, and will cheer him 
in his hopes with the assurance that we will declare ourselves 
Catholics the moment we are convinced that Catholicity is truth. 



376 THE CATHOLIC SERVICE. 

But with our present feelings we should not consent to be can- 
didates for petticoats. But we are ignorant yet, very ignorant. 
We call things by such names as we have been accustomed to 
give them. Our first great blunder in this way was in supposing 
that the sign put by the Bishop before his name was a dagger. 
It was what the printers always called a dagger, and so we sup- 
posed it was a dagger. We grew up in New England, where 
there are few symbols, and many realities. Few symbols of 
purity, and much real purity ; few types and shadows, but much 
reality. Not so much piety of garments, but more, or at least 
quite as much, true piety. The ministers there, to be sure, once 
Avore big wigs and three-cornered hats, clean bands, and some- 
times a black college surplice. But those things have now al- 
most entirely disappeared, and the clergy rely almost on their 
personal bearing and piety for their influence among the people. 
We may learn to get truth through symbols of doubtful significancy, 
but we have been so long accustomed to go right to it, and read 
it in the Bible, with no symbols between it and us, that at first 
this way, so old, but new to us, seems rather to embarrass the 
matter. But we must live and learn, and nobody can tell what 
fifteen years may not do. We should not be surprised to find 
ourselves much nearer to American Romanism then, than we are 
now. Certainly we are much nearer to it now than fifteen years 
ago. But as we said, we are ignorant yet. We do not know 
why Jesus Christ came into the world and gave himself a sacrifice 
on the Cross to establish a Church on Peter. We do not under- 
derstund how the Church has been infallible when her councils 
have decreed so many different things. A passage in Bishop 
Hughes' sermon on Christmas troubled us just in this place. He 
said that Mary had been called the " Mother of God" until Nes- 
torius (?) declared that it was improper to call her so. A great 
council was called, and the prelates from all parts of the empire 
were interrogated as to the opinion of the Church, through their 
dioceses. They declared that the sense was everywhere against 
Nestorius, and when this decision was proclaimed from the vast 
temple in which the council were assembled, the people rent the 
air with their joyful acclamations. We were obliged to perceive, 
through this symbol of public rejoicing, that there must have 
been some doubt how the council would decide, and that to pro- 
duce such a doubt, there must have been a wide-spread differ- 
ence of opinion ; and the question would rise whether if the deci- 
sion had been the other way, it would have been just as infallible. 
But the Bishop took it upon himself to say, that the appellation 
was given to Mary " not because she was mother of the divine 
nature, but because that nature was so united with the person of 



PROTESTANT LIBERALITY. 377 

her Son,<as of that it was proper to use this language." It seem- 
ed to us, therefore, tliat there was notliing really, in the mighty 
question. All parties held the same opinion about the fact. The 
only cpiestion was about the ■propriety of the toords, and that a 
Church which should make such a mighty movement about a mat- 
ter of no real importance, must have been not merely fallible, but 
childish. We did not see Church Infallibity, any how, in these 
symbols. 

But we have displayed enough of our ignorance for the pre- 
sent. If we were to say that we do not know how the succes- 
sion is proved all the way down from the apostles, nor of what 
importance it could be if it were proved, it would only show how 
much more we have to learn in fifteen years. But fifteen years 
is a great while. In a very little of that time all the banks are to 
break, and nobody can say where we shall be after that. We 
hope to be where the Bible is, where people believe because 
things are proved, and not because they are not proved, or are 
even disproved, and Avhere faith is not formal and ceremonial, but 
living and purifying. We should not think it very strange if all 
this should take place in the American Catholic Church. 



PROTESTANT LIBERALITY. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, March 27, 1847.] 

*' In the midst of such scenes ; of dreadful sufferings and of generous 
charity, it were strange if Protestantism of the true and genuine type 
should not show its hideous form. It has done so ! In shame for our 
wretched humanity we would wish to be able to deny it. We would 
fain tliink tliat the serpents of the pit had assumed the empty form of 
Bible-pedlars, and had not found any of the human race so God-forsaken 
as to serve so purely hellish a cavise. But, except we take this expla- 
nation, there is no other way to escape from it, that the canting miscre- 
ants of Exeter Hall have gone to Ireland, crept into the hovels where 
poor Catholics were writhing in the agonies of a death from starvatioti, 
with rice boiled, and prepared in their hand, and have offered it on the 
condition of abjuring the Catholic faith, and when the condition was 
rejected, have gone away and left the poor Catholic to certain death!.' .' 
Is it not well, is it not full time that Protestantism of this type has lost 
its hold on public sentiment, and that the howl of its self-confessed dis- 
solution is no longer interrupted save by the jecrings of those Avhom 
it has attempted to dupe .'" — Freeman's Journal. 

It must be a most inveterate habit of lying which the present 
deplorable condition of Roman Catholics, and the noble gen- 
erosity of Protestants cannot silence. Such a story as this must 
be an outright made-up slander, without one word of truth 



3T8 



BIBLE OR NO BIBLE 



about it. But even if one or two individuals had done just what 
is here represented, how poor a soul must tliat Catholic have, 
who would make a noise about it here, and how exceeding ungen- 
erous in the midst of Protestant liberality, to call that " Protest- 
antism of the true and genuine type." The thousands of dollars 
which come from all parts of our country for Catholic relief, (for 
there is no Protestant suffering of importance,) are, for the most 
part, given by Protestants who claim to be of the " true and 
genuine type." These free and happy States are peopled with 
such. But what if some Protestant association, unable to help 
all, had thought it a chief duty to aid Protestants ? Has Popery 
anything to say against that ? " Left to certain death !" If this 
had been the extent of Popish cruelty, its guilt would have been 
comparatively small. But it has not left Protestants to die ! 
Its pathway through the dark ages, and while it had the power, 
was a broad way, piled high with Christian corpses on either 
side, and gullied deep with the river of Christian blood which 
was ever flowing through it, from victims put to death with all 
possible horrors. Left to die ! Do you think that wrong ? 
What do you think of shutting a mother in one room, and her 
child in an adjoining room, where she could hear its cries and its 
breathing, and then starving them both to death, because that 
mother refused to abjure Jesus Christ and worship the Virgin 
Mary ? Such things as these, in hundreds of thousands of 
instances, and by the Inghest Catholic authorities, we have to 
balance your slander, thrown thus meanly back in the face of a 
generous Protestant world, laboring earnestly to relieve Catholic 
misery — and that misery created almost wholly by Romanism 
itself. Left to die, eh ! 



BIBLE OR NO BIBLE. 
[jFVom the Jotirnal of Commerce, ^pril 6, 1847.] 

He who would know the value of the Bible may learn it by 
comparing the LTnited States with Mexico. Mexico was first 
settled, and by as good men perhaps as could be found anywhere 
without the Bible. The soil, the climate, the minerals of Mexico, 
were all superior to those of the United States. She had the 
superiority in everything except men, and the difference in the 
men was chiefly attributable to the Bible. We talk much of 
Anglo-Saxon blood. But why is that blood better than the blood 
of Aragon and Castile ? The blood of all our race is feculent 
and feeble untU the religion of the Bible gives it purity and vigor. 
No candid man can find any adequate cause for the boundless 



BIBLE OR NO BIBLE. 379 

disparity between the people of the two republics, except that 
one is a Protestant and the other a Catholic nation ; one has the 
free use of the word of God, the other has it not. 

Let the world look at the state of facts now exhibited in the 
two nations, and give a verdict of truth. Let them say whether 
the Lord is God, or the Pope of Rome ; whether they will be 
ruled by the laws of God, or by those of an ignorant, lewd and 
lying priesthood. 

In Mexico is a population of eight millions of people — poor, 
ignorant, violent, revolutionary ; and a priesthood who have con- 
trived to amass all the wealth in their own hands ; a people and 
a country in abject poverty, and a Church with seventy millions of 
dollars, an army forced into the ranks, miserably armed, miserably 
clothed, and starved, on the one side ; to meet an American army 
of volunteers, educated, well-armed, fed and clothed, and of a supe- 
riority so extraordinary, that where they stand, and against four 
times their number, they stand unmoved as the hills beneath them. 
In one nation cities rise on every hand ; navies float on every sea ; 
canals, railroads and communications of every sort facilitate the 
growing greatness and happiness of the people ; while in the 
other, cities dwindle away and commerce scarcely has existence. 
In one nation every man is industrious and inventive, secure in his 
home, his family and his property ; in the other, everything is 
indolence and insecurity. In one country schools are everywhere, 
instruction everywhere, intelligence and manly independence in 
every countenance ; in the other, superstition, ignorance, servility, 
worthlessness. One country feeds the starving Cathohcs of Eu- 
rope ; the otlier starves Catholics at home. One is the land of 
freedom and plenty, to which the oppressed and starving of Eu- 
rope are thronging as to a paradise ; the other the abode of 
oppressors, and shunned by the most miserable as the place where 
they would only be made still more miserable. One country is 
adorned and blessed with thousands of churches, few of them 
rich, but filled with intelligent Christians, taught by a thoroughly 
educated and pious ministry ; the other has churches filled with 
images, pictures, and ignorant devotees bowing before them^ under 
the dictation of priests, who, with some exceptions, are ignorant, 
vicious, cock-fighting, gambling, sore-legged, and all in all as 
thorough-going a set of villains as ever took holy orders this side 
of the bottomless pit. One nation is full of Christians ; the 
other is full of Catholics. One nation is full of Bibles ; the other 
full of tradition. The Bible has made us to differ. Let us thank 
God and keep it, and not only keep it, but study it, and fill our 
minds and the minds of our children with its purifying and enno- 
bling truths. 



380 TENDENCIES OF ROMANISM. 

TENDENCIES OF ROMANISM. 
[From the Jom-nal of Commerce, May 12, 1847.] 

The tendency of tlie Roman Catholic system is to barbarize 
and brutalize those who adopt it. 

It removes the word of God from the people, It is in the 
study of the Bible alone that men find out their relationship to 
God and their fellow men, and their high dignity and responsibiUty. 
Nothing but this has ever enabled our race to stand up in such 
personal and associated dignity, as to maintain good order in con- 
nection with true liberty. Without the Bible men neither know 
God nor themselves. 

The system deals in no great thoughts. It is by contemplating 
great objects that men become great. By contemplating others, 
men are " changed into the same image" with the objects of con- 
templation. The man who has with him always the grand idea 
of God's presence, who feels that the Almighty is round about 
him constantly, and does this with admiration and love for that 
high and holy Spirit in whom he lives, and moves, and is, gradually 
becomes elevated, purified, and like the object of his contempla- 
tions. The Romish religion Avraps us in no such elevating con- 
templations. Instead of sending us to God through the great 
Mediator, with all our sorrows, desires and joys, it sends us to a 
priest, often a poor humanity, or to saints dressed out in fantas- 
tics, or to the Virgin Mary ; and with the contemplation of these 
small, and often degrading objects, would occupy and fill our 
minds. It is not a religion of grand spiritualities, but of small 
materialities. 

It does not appeal to the ennohling affections of our race. 
Benevolence is the great affection of man, and fear the least and 
most belittlinsc. The Romish relimon has little to do with benevo- 
lence, but is built almost wholly on fear ; fear of penance, of the 
priest, of purgatory. Instead of teaching that we are to love all 
men as brethren, children of a common Father," it shuts up favor 
within the inclosure of the Church, and teaches that heretics 
(those who have opinions) are to be hated, persecuted and 
destroyed. It does not stimulate, but suppresses mental exercise ; 
and the mind can no more thrive in indolence than the body. 
Investigation is mental exercise. Searching after truth, great 
truth, makes the mind strong and healthy. But Rome forbids all 
this mental exercise upon the greatest of all topics. It demands 
that men should never think and investigate, but believe the teach- 
ings of the Church. The mind which adopts this fundamental 
error is at once unstrung. Its exercise is ended, and its health 
and strength departed. Civil governments always, if they can, 



TENDENCIES OF ROMANISM. 381 

demand the same slavish submission, so that when the system is 
carried out by rehgious liierarcliy and pohtical despots, men cease 
to think on these two most interesting subjects, and their intellect- 
ual strength departs. In our country, where freedom of political 
discussion is everywhere kept up, that does much to sustain intel- 
lectual strength. But he Avho consents to be enslaved, to give up 
his mind to the dictation of masters in religion, has lost, even 
here, the best means of intellectual culture, and even of thorough 
political knowledge. It is true that when despots in religion and 
politics have alike established their sway, there yet remain the 
broad fields of art and science, in which minds may rove and 
exercise. But these fields are trodden by a select few only, and 
they must keep to nari-ow paths, lest their feet should uncap some 
forbidden cave. 

Individuality, and that self-reliance without which no man can 
be great, Rome discountenances everywhere. Rights here, and 
salvation hereafter, come down through the Church and her con- 
secrated hands. Dependence, submission, are her constant cry. 
She allows no child of God to say, " I will tell it to my Father," 
and rest it there. But soul and body, time and eternity, hang 
on the will of men and association in the Church. The highest 
nobility of man, standing up alone in the rights which God gave 
him when He made him what he is, Rome dashes to the earth. 
What mind can fail to see the ennobling power of personal inde- 
pendence, and of personal divine right, in which an individual 
man stands, a king and a priest of God's making, high above all 
the kings and piiests which men have made, or who have made 
themselves in spite of men. 

Here are five great avenues to feebleness and brutalization, at 
which Rome is ever working. The number might be increased, 
and these might be expanded until volumes were filled. They 
are matters of common sense, obvious philosophy, and as interest- 
ing as obvious. The- tendency of the great doctrines of any sect 
in religion, politics or general philosophy, should be considered ; 
for these produce the grand residts. A circumstance or cluster 
of circumstances may indicate an opposite result, as the windings 
of a path may sometimes turn the face of the traveler avvay from 
the proper end of his journey. But in both cases he is on his 
way, and moving toward the end with certainty. Here are rea- 
sons enough for "the bloody revolution of France, for St. Barthole- 
mew's day, and all the horrors of Catholic barbarity, for the pre- 
sent condition of Catliolic countries. They show, too, how our 
land of happy Bible freemen would be dragged down to the den 
of brutality, if Rome or any other hierarchy should ever get the 
dominion over us. 



382 ROMANISM AND LIBERTY. 

ROMANISM AND LIBERTY. 

[Frotn the Journal of Commerce, Jlpril 14, 1848.] 

Brownson, in the last number of his Review, has a labored 
article, in which he attempts to show that the Romish Church 
has been the patron of liberty always. lie irocs back to the 
time of the introduction of Christianity, describes the bad state 
of the world then, and attempts to show that it has become 
much better since. Bishop Hughes has attempted to show the 
same liberalizing tendency of his Church, and so have various 
others. But it would be a mucli shorter ]«-oc(!ss, and much 
more satisfactory, we think, if, instead of wading through the 
labyrinths of so many ages of darkness, tyranny and crime, the 
gentleman would point us directly to the various nations where 
this " tendency" has resulted in the establishment of that which 
was the end and object of the tendency. Wo take it that a ten- 
dency, which is nothing but a tendency, might as well be a ten- 
dency to one thing as another. In fact, the best way to ascer- 
tain the tendency of any cause is, to inquire what has been 
produced. Prelacy assumed great inlluence during the early 
centuries, and in five or si.\ hundred years had come to exert an 
almost undisputed ' sway. If it was in full tendency from the 
year 500 to the year 1500, it would seem that a tendency of a 
thousand years must have " cropped out," as the geologists say, 
at some point, and come to the i-ealization of a " development." 
Obviously, the Catholic Church ought not to be held responsible 
for what has happened since Kno.v, Luther, Calvin, lluss, and 
others like them, brought in their disturbing inlluences. 15ut 
anywhere, along from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, if the 
great Catholic tendency did really come above ground, in the 
establishment of a well-regulateil republican government, any- 
where under the patronage of the Pope, for instant'.e, or any 
other Catholic dignitary, historians have very carelessly over- 
looked it. They were not aware of the tendency perhaps, — 
were not looking out for the dmelopment, and so stunibled over 
without observing it. If any such thing really existed, anil Mr. 
Brownson will point it out, we will slide down the plane of time 
a thousand years, with tiie pleasure of his company, to see it. 
Possibly it lies just developed under or among the ruins of ller- 
culaneum. Wlu'rever it be, though yet buried deep under 
boundless continents of lava or other rubbish, we will " off coat," 
and with pickaxe in hand, dig as long as he will, to find it. But 
there have been, all along, several nations in which the Catholic 
tendency to freedom has been operating, in a great measure 
undisturbed, imtil recentlv. We do not refer to England or the 



ROMANISM A N IJ LIBERTY. 383 

United States, for in bolli these countricfi the tendency was run 
off the track two liundred years ago. But it has been working 
in Spain, Italy, Austria, South America, and in Russia too, we 
presume ; for when tlie Eastern or Greek Churcli separated 
from tlie Western or Romish, she probably kept her share of the 
tendency. Will Mr. Brownson, or any of the learned gentlemen, 
cither lay, reverend, or .very reverend, or right reverend, point 
us to the really free Catholic country now basking in the liberty 
which Popery has brought to it? We are ready to take ship 
any day to visit that country. Certainly in Italy, in the very 
focus of this great tendency, it must have wrought out the great 
object of its labor ; yet they say the people have never been 
allowed to vote for their rulers there, in either Church or State ; 
that they have no news])apers except those entirely controlled 
by government, no meetings of citizens to discuss political or 
religious subjects, no public schools, no Bible, " no notiiing." 
Well, if that is the best result of an uninterrupted tendency to 
liberty of twelve centuries, then we cannot understand the use of 
tendencies. 

The Puritan tendencies have not been at work a quarter 
so long, and yet see what developments have come above 
ground. They came up early, like tulips in the spring. Whose 
tendencies tliese are which are heaving so under all the old 
Catholic thrones of Europe, we will not stop to say ; but we 
cannot help thinking, that this old tendency of Romanism which 
Mr. Brownson describes, has been stimulated into a more rapid 
productiveness since the land has been literally dressed with 
Protestant lime. 



THE PILGKIM FATHERS. 



MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS. 



In making selections from the writings of Mr. Hale for the 
present volume, the Editor has limited himself mainly to topics 
of a moral and religious nature. He has excluded political sub- 
ject's, on which — especially that of Free Trade — Mr. Hale wrote 
much and with great ability. He must also omit many mis- 
cellaneous articles which would of themselves make an inter- 
esting volume. From the great mass of such articles contained 
in the more than six thousand numbers of the Journal of Com- 
merce which have been examined for the purpose, such only 
have been selected as are supposed to have some permanent 
value, or to be of striking merit. Each article here inserted has 
been identified as Mr. Hale's by Mr. Gerard Hallock, by whose 
kind aid the Editor has been enabled to make this compilation. 



THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
\_From the Journal of Commerce, February 8, 1846.] 

" Forefather's Day. — The claims of the old Puritans to our memory 
and admiration cannot, we presume, be vindicated on the ground of 
their intrepidity and skill as voyagers, or of the privations they en- 
dured, though condemned to live when they landed, their descendant 
patlietically tells, on ' a few biscuits, a little Holland cheese, and a 
small bottle of aqua vitre.' Consequently the results of their deeds on 
this continent, or their former lives and cliaracter, establish their title 
to fame witii posterity. ' Around this spot,' said the President, ' lit- 
tle more than two hundred years ago, men enacted scenes which con- 
stituted the history of a nation. One degree of heat and cold more or 
less, one tomahawk more, and an empire was extinguished.' Acting 
under the like natural gratitude, the denizens of a future flourishing 
republic may assemble on the shores of New Zealand to honor their pil- 
grim progenitors, for they too will have planted an empire. They may 
be supposed to cast a retrospect on their narrow escape from non-exist- 
ence, and say, a judge more clement, a felony less heinous, a jury more 
conscientious, and an empire was unborn. 

" As to their character and the motives of their conduct, the concur- 
rent testimonies of all impartial historians concede that their turbu- 
lence made Europe too hot for their practices. Nor cau Mr. Webster 



THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 385 

dispel the belief in this overwhelming authority by quoting history to 
prove they were an ambitious, unscrupulous sect, and, without show- 
ing, doggeclly asserting the contrary. They committed their lives to 
tlio ocean, it may be said, in vindication of religious freedom. But they 
always pushed the doctrine in the application to their own case to the 
most extravagant excesses, and the destruction of civil obedience. The 
instant they ceased to be slaves, did they not play the tyrant .' Nay, 
while actually harassed by vexation and oppression, did they not 
strive to perpetuate against other persuasions tlie thraldom at which 
they so obstreperovisly clamored .' Looking at the specimens that re- 
mained, the Old World, indeed, may bless her fate on the transportation 
of a portion of the race to a place where they could no longer be dan- 
gerous, and calculated to reform their tempers by diverting them from 
tlieir favorite occupation of preaching, to the necessity of deriving a 
subsistence from clearing the forest and cultivating tiie soil. They left 
behind too many bad on principle, with one who earned an everlasting 
memory by chance, and one who reaped immortal curses by his crimes. 
Deeply was it to be lamented tliat Oliver Cromwell did not make one of 
the Pilgrims ; he would have returned to his primitive avocation of the 
plow, and the world would have been spared the bloody record oa 
wliich Puritanism has engraven his name."' — Freeman's Jouimal (Cath- 
olic). 

Bite viper ! If the man who wrote this for the official organ 
of this diocese, or his ancestors of hke blood, could have known 
in 1G20 that only " one tomahawk more" was wanting, it would 
have been speedily supplied. But the time when one tomahawk 
or a million could extinguish the empire of earth's deliverance 
from the reign of priestcraft has gone by, thanks to the provi- 
dence of God. The empire of Puritan emancipation is so firmly 
established upon the broad basis of truth, that though the emis- 
saries of the Papac)' come here by thousands, build their cathe- 
drals, establish their nunneries, and set up their newspapers 
to curse the fathers of the republic and the principles which 
they pronounced, yet no one is alarmed. The pillars which 
they erected tremble not, and no well-instructed descendant 
of the Pilgrims is alarmed. Yet to this day, the Papacy dare 
not allow a Yankee boy to pass its frontier with a Bible in 
his pocket, lest he should overthrow the Church. The head 
Papa sits trembling at Rome, scared by the noise of a printing- 
press, more frightful to him than the earthquakes of Etna 
and Vesuvius. And yet the noise grows louder. That blessed 
" palaver stone" at Plymouth is becoming a great mountain and 
filling the earth — burying forever divine right and the boundless 
wickedness of the men who claimed it. Cry on then from the 
tops of all the Seven Hills, " treason ! rebellion ! there can 
b'! no church without a bishop, no state Avithout a king !" 
Gather together hard names and hard curses mountain high, 
and hurl them upon the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. It is too 
late, for the empire of liberty is founded. 
17 



386 THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 

The Pilgrims had a pilot to guide them, in whom they 
trusted, more than in their own skill. True, they did not 
land where they expected, but they landed where God in- 
tended, and that was what they desired. It is not pretended 
that the Pilgrims were perfect either in wisdom or holiness. 
They were men from Europe, not angels from heaven, nor gods 
from anywhere, nor even saints from Italy. They had not 
learned everything, but they had learned that God was greater 
than the Pope, that the Bible Avas a safer guide than tradition, 
that salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ, not by absolution 
from the priest. They had learned the great doctrine of human 
equality and the divine rights of man as he came from the hand 
of his Creator, and they valued those rights more than the bless- 
ing of the bishop. They found a shorter way to heaven than 
tliat which lies through purgatory, and a surer ticket of admis- 
sion than masses, bought with money. 

But there is no better testimonj^ to the character of the 
parents than is to be found in that of the children. We are will- 
ing the Puritan pioneers of New England, and the Catholic pio- 
neers of South America, should be judged and compared either 
by the records of history, or the facts of the present day. We 
are willing to compare New England with Rome itself, the very 
seat of Cathohc influences. We are willing to weigh what 
the Puritans have done for the happiness of mankind, against the 
labors of their revilers, Avhether they be put forth through the 
organ of Bishop Hughes or the Reverend Rector of New 
Rochelle, whose unscrupulous misrepresentations disgrace a re- 
spectable Puritan name. Where has liberty spread her wings 
without restraint but in the land of the Puritans ? Nay, where, 
but vmder the protection of Puritan principles, did ever self-gov- 
ernment maintain anj^thing but endless revolution ? The doc- 
trines of salvation by penances and absolutions and auricular 
confessions and prelatical blessings, and that tradition and the 
Church are the rules of faith, make men slaves to priestcraft. 
Tlie doctrine that the Bible is the only rule of faith, and that 
salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, disenthrals the soul, 
and makes God's freemen. Such were the Pilgrims, and such 
are most of their descendants still. 

But however much hierarchs may hate and vilify the Puritans 
and their principles, they are compelled to bow down and do 
them reverence. At the staple and ring fastened by the Puri- 
tans, their stiff necks are compelled to bend. Here, we have 
th«^ strange inconsistency of men abusing the doctrines of the 
Puritans, as they j)retend, and yet pniising the religious and civil 
liberty and the universal education which are but the practical 



THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 387 

development of those doctrines. The Pope's bishop here, the 
patron of this scoffing journal, out-Herods the Pilgrims in his 
praises of Pilgrim democracy. Amid the denunciations of the 
fountain, all hands praise the stream below, compelled by the 
fruitfulness and beauty of the valley around. Popery curses the 
Pilgrims, and then seeks to be popular by putting on their gar- 
ments. 

The Pope here is the friend of education, self-government, re- 
ligious liberty, and has "no objection" to the reading the Bible 
in the public schools ; in fact you would almost think him Elder 
Brewster risen from the dead. What liigher praise did any men 
ever extort from their enemies? Go on then. Genius of Hier- 
archy, to upbraid the Pilgrims of 16'20. You cannot deliver 
yourself from the controlling spell of their doctrines. You must 
walk in the procession of the Pilgrim triumph. The Pilgrims 
are dead, to be sure. Tyrants and slaves may kick their dust. 
But their principles live and will live to lay superstition and 
tyranny in the dust. 

Bishop Hughes, in the versatility of his genius, delivered a lec- 
ture two or three years ago, in which he demonstrated, as 
he seemed to think, that Popery naturally tends to liberty 
and civilization, and that if it had not always produced these 
results, it was owing to " accidents." The Reformation under 
Luther he thought a great misfortune, as it interrupted the reg- 
ular development of the blessings of Popery. The Bishop felt 
sure that the bombshells which were found in the Pope's 
nest just at that time were the genuine eggs of the republican 
goose ; and that, if Luther had not scared her off, she would 
have hatched out, in due time, a brood of liberty, religion, 
and literature. No matter that whenever one of these eggs had 
really been hatched, there had burst out a thousand iron slugs 
and all sorts of murderous things, — that was only an accident. 
Republican eggs will .'^ometimes hatch that way. At any rate, 
the Bishop proved to demonstration, that the most hideous des- 
potism which ever crushed our race would have produced 
liberty, order, and virtue, if only it had been left alone : just as 
a battle-field, manured with gore, bears rich clover, or a heap of 
compost-filth covers itself with violets and dandelions. So the 
Papacy was established as the natural progenitor of Puritanism. 



388 pilgrims' day. 

PILGRIMS' DAY. 

[Prom the Journal of Commerce, December 21, 1847.1 

The New Ensrland Society of this city will celebrate the land- 
incf of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, with their accustomed 
oration at the Tabernacle, and suppei' at the Astor House. The 
orator this year is J. Prescott Hall. Esq., whose personal repu- 
tation leads us to expect that the higii character of this anniver- 
sary will not suffer in his hands. The Yankees in Brooklyn hav- 
ing set up for themselves, are to have their feast also. Rev. Dr. 
Cheever is their orator ; and as to the feast, they intend to have 
some flow of soul there, for although they have e.vcluded into.x- 
icating liquors, they have introduced the ladies who are some- 
times still more intoxicating. 

It is grateful to rest upon events which show that the virtues 
are not mereh' a list of pretty labels placed on empty packages, 
or, what is still worse, used only to smuggle along bad things 
under cover. There must be some virtue, or hypocrisy Avould 
have been dead long ago, for the pretense to that which never 
was cannot long cheat people. Yet if we were really to ascer- 
tain how small a quantity of real virtue has been able to keep up 
this vast growth of fungous matter, looking all green and healthy, 
we should find that pure virtue, the real morphia itself, must 
have a wonderful power in it. The world has never yet sunk so 
low, as not to know that real virtue is of inestimable worth. 
Every one who pretends to have anything pretends that he has 
che genuine article, yet there is a wonderful quaniit)' of counterfeit 
stuff abroad. There is a courage much boasted of, by which men 
fight duels and all sorts of battles, which, after all, is nothing but 
fear of somebody's talk ; there is a benevolence which only does 
good deeds to others, because it sees that it can carry out its own 
selfishness that way ; there is a piety which makes a great outside 
show of words and ceremonies, merely to cover the track of freer 
sinning ; and there is a patriotism which makes a great outcry about 
the public good, but means nothing but its own. These counter- 
feits of virtues are always the deadliest enemies of the real thing ; 
and their way of fighting it, is to call it by the names of their own 
hateful qualities. Sheep thieves, they say, cry stop-thief loudest 
of all the throng ; so you may pick out the real bigots and hypo- 
crites of the coramunit}', by selecting those whom you hear most 
vehemently charging others with these vile qualities. 

It is one of the remai-kable characteristics of real virtue, that it 
deals little in pi-etension as to itself. It acts out itself. Its 
proof is in the use, and it seems often to be quite unconcerned 
about what others think. Real virtue, knowing its own worth, 



pilgrims' day. 389 

is careful too, not hastil}' to cliari^e that what seems right exter- 
ually is really wrong. " Charily hopeth all things," and is not 
half so ready to call a hypocrite by his true name, as t4ie hypo- 
crite is to fix his own name upon sincerity. If a man talks a 
great deal about honesty, do not put your money in his hands. 

But there is a great characterisUc about true heroic Airtue. It 
always exerts itself about that which it thinks r'uiht. A bravery 
which exerts itself in mere destruction, a patriotism which will 
hurry the country to ruin, rather than offend the popular opinion, 
falls oti' here, and proves itself hollow-hearted, — a vice and not a 
virtue. /*• it rights That is the first and last question with 
great virtue. What is dutij? W\\i\i.\s tisefulnPHS? What will 
fall in with and carry out the plans of Infinite Goodness ? The 
man of real virtue stands by God's side and woiks with him. 
He is a hero, as inconceivable to common heroes, as God him- 
self, almost. He works by rules and acts on plans, to them in- 
comprehensible. 

Puritanism was not a man or generation of men, but a princi- 
ple, a soul which makes a hero of any man in whom it dwells, 
it had a marvelous development in the seventeenth century, but 
has had its developments in all centui-ies, even in this, we trust. 
In the seventeenth century, men grew to be great heroes, by the 
working of true virtue within them, and cruel oppression without 
them, and a better knowledge of what was real truth than had 
existed for ages before. These Puritans were hated, hated, hat- 
ed ; yes ! with a peifect, finious, inexpressible hatred. There 
was reason enough for this in Church and Slate, for they had 
found out that man was a king and a priest, and this put them 
that wore crowns and mitei's into the ranks at once, and turned 
the world upside down sure enough, or at least brought it to one 
broad equality. 

What they believed they practiced ; and so, when a man who 
had been a special king rebelled against the government, com- 
mitted treason, and could in no otherwise be made to allow peace 
to the commonwealth, they cut his head otf", for the necessity of 
the case, and without any particular superstition about the mat- 
ter. There was some shaking about thrones in those days, when 
there was danger that the common good of all the people alike 
was to be made the rule of action. 

There was never a greater eflbrt made on earth to bury up 
and dcsti-oy anything, than has been made against this Puritan- 
ism, and the great men whose hearts beat with it ; and yet, with 
a singh' excejition, and that almost a part of the very same 
thing, no other set of men ever laid the world under such mighty 
obligation to them, or produced such great blessings for our race. 



390 BISHOP HUGHES AMONG THE PURITANS. 

Liberty, civil and religious, the Puritans won it for us all. They 
have been accused of everything but vvliat they were. We have 
thought "this a good occasion to show how some of these things 
stand, and we have a couple of capital witnesses, in Carlyle and 
the North American Review, neither of which can be accused of 
any prejudice in favor of Puritanism. 

Every man who would understand this strange giant period of 
the world, should read Carlyle's book through ; and he will grow 
himself, if he will but allow it. The Puritans who landed on 
Plymouth Rock, and their immediate associates, have been char- 
ged a milHon of times, with coming over for gain ; to get from go- 
vernment, that they might play the tyrant themselves ; with de- 
stroying the Indians ; with persecuting the Quakers ; persecuting 
Roger Williams, &c. All these things are utter lies, though told 
never so many times. The facts out of which most of these 
stories are fabricated did not happen in connection with the Ply- 
mouth colonists at all, but with the corporated planters of the co- 
lony of the Massachusetts Bay ; nor until the generation of im- 
migrants had all passed away. The facts as charged never hap- 
pened at all. The quotations below, constituting the concluding 
portion of a review of Mr. Young's collection of chronicles, in 
the North American Review, put these things in their true po- 
sition. [These are omitted for want of room.] 



BISHOP HUGHES AMONG THE PURITANS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, January 8, 1848.] 

Spiritualities are easily lost sight of. Sentiment controls 
men, and yet, while we celebrate the praises of a sentiment 
which in old times blessed the world, its life dies away within us, 
and the praises of a great virtue will perhaps be celebrated by 
oigies of viciousness. Even those symbols of sentiment or feel- 
ing which are intended to perpetuate virtue, lose the life them- 
selves which they were intended to secure, and come to be them- 
selves substituted for it, to its entire extinction. So men honor 
humility by wearing sackcloth and abstaining from meirt, while 
tlieir hearts, very possibly, are full of pride, and their bellies of 
salmon and eggs. Those spiritual sentiments and feelings which 
purify and ennoble men, come to be celebrated by outside shells 
of ceremony, got up as substitutes for the represented graces, 
and as a decent apology for the total absence of all real good- 
ness. When this process has gone on until the vicious apparition 
of virtue is thoroughly substituted for its living self, then a refor- 



BISHOP HUGHES AMONG THE PURITANS. iJ91 

mation becomes necessary ; a recurrence to first principles ; a be- 
ginning de novo. 

It would be difficult to imagine any aberration from original 
principles, any passing round to a precisely antipodal position, 
more thorough and perfect than the invitation of a Romish pre- 
late to participate in a festival to the honor of the Pilgrims who 
landed on Plymouth Rock, December 22d, 1620. If ever there 
were men who personifi'id principles, they were the Pilgrims. 
Men as learned as they, perhaps as enterprising and industrious, 
certainly more wealthy. landed on various points along the At- 
lantic coast, before and after these Pilgrims, and yet their land- 
ing gave interest to no rock, and their acts have left no impres- 
sion on the world. Surely the landing of a small ship-load of 
men and women, hungry and frozen, upon the barren beach of 
Plymouth, was in itself an event of no consequence to the world. 
There was something in and about these men and women which 
did not appertain to others ; something beyond mere common hu- 
manity. They were peculiar, strange men and women ; strange 
in character, in sentiment and in spirit. The)' came here avowing 
a purpose which no emigrants except themselves and their im- 
mediate associates avowed. They were peculiar in this, tlmt 
they took the Bible as their sufficient rule of religious faith, re- 
jecting the authority of men present, and the traditions of the 
ancients. They rejected all those claims to clerical authority 
which were founded on official succession, and claimed for them- 
selves, and each one of themselves, a commission from Jesus 
Christ, not only to preach the word, but to do everything which 
the exigencies of the Church might require. They claimed that 
authority came from God through the people ; and so, that every 
community was a State, and every assembly of Christians a 
Church ; and that in Church and State theie was no rightful 
authority but that which had its origin in the voluntary consent 
of the people. 

We need not stop to inquire whether these principles of the 
Pilgrims were more true, or less true, than the opposite princi- 
ples which they rejected, and which had rejected and persecuted 
them. We have only to say that the sentiments which they 
held, and of which we have enumerated some of the most im- 
portant, rendered them a peculiar people ; and their peculiar sen- 
timents alone rendered their landing an event of any consequence 
to the world. These opinions were in contradiction of the opin- 
ions of the world generally, as it then existed, and they were put 
forth in resistance to the authorities of the world. Tlie kings 
jind prelates of the world felt that these principles were, utterly 
inconsistent with their claims, and subversive of their authority. 



392 BISHOP HUGHES AMONG THE PURITANS. 

They justly regarded the sentiments of the Pilgrims as nothing 
less than treason against them. Here was a war of principle 
wide as the world. 

The descendants of the Pilgrims, and all others who meet to 
commemorate the landing of the Pilgrims, celebiate the princi- 
2jIcs more than the men wiio landed ; or rather, the principles in 
the men which made them what the}' were. Any otiier motive 
would be an absurdity and a weakness. It was not to be e.xpected 
that all the descendants of the Pilgrims, much less that all the 
people of New England, and all their descendants, should hold 
on to the principal opinions of the fu'st Pilgrims. They have all 
a right to think for themselves, and the spirit of their fathers con- 
jures them to find the iruth, and then to hold it fast as above 
all price. Yet it is difficult to comprehend what cordiality there 
can be, really and thoughtfully, in the piaises of their fathers by 
nien who have rejected the opinions which they held, and adopted 
those wliich they rejected. Still, when a lineal descendant of 
the Pilgrims chooses to stand up and declare at a Pilgrim dinner, 
that " there can be no Church without a Bishop," we can only 
say, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel," and wonder 
at the strange absurdity of celebrating the praises of men, and 
excommunicating them on the same occasion. But when a pre- 
late is brought in who has not a drop of Pilgrim blood in his 
veins ; who has exerted his utmost power to drive the Bible from 
our system of public education ; who prints it in his book of di- 
rections for the diocese, that " a heretic is one who has an opin- 
ion," and has just declared of the Romish Church, under his own 
name, in his own paper, " that all Piotestants who have a zeal 
for their salvation, ought to enter her communion with as little 
delay as possible ;" when such a man is made conspicuous at a 
Pilgrim dinner, we say absurdity can go no further, and it is time 
for a reformation. The sentimental descendants from the Pil- 
grims — the real spiritual succession — cannot consent to such a 
state of things. This we say, not in disrespect to Bishop Hughes, 
or to the opinions of any one, but in deference to the proprieties 
of an occasion. We need not explain the incongruity, for the 
consciousness of every sensible man explains it to himself. But 
we must be excused for speaking freely of this matter, though 
not disrespectfidly, we hope. 

We are obliged to think that the real design of a Pilgrim cele- 
bration has been lost sight of almost entirely. We have been 
gratified to see with what a noble zeal some of the leading gen- 
tlemen in the society, who have either gone back to the opinions 
of church order which the Pilgrims rejected, or forward to the 
denial of those grand theological doctrines upon which they built 



BISHOP HUGHES AMONG THE PURITANS. 393 

their wliole Cluistianity, have led on the eulogies of the Pilgrims, 
however hard those eulogies might bear against their own pre- 
sent opinions. Thej^ have seemed to comprehend the greatness 
of their fathers, and to realize that, on the day of their praises, 
those praises should go forth without controversy or embarrass- 
ment. Certainly this is right, and everything else is wrong. Yet 
we cannot hel[) (liinking that tlie great discrepancies of opinion to 
which we have alluded, have brought about this strange oblivion 
of the real objects of a Pilgrim celebration. Nothing could 
more forcibl}' illustrate the contradiction between the occasion 
and tlie presence of a Romish Bishop, than an occurrence which 
took place at the last meeting of the officers of the New Eng- 
land Societ)', before the dinner. A committee had been ap- 
])ointed, as usual, to invite honored guests ; and at this meeting, 
as usual, the toasts were to be agreed upon, and the arrange- 
ments finished. One of the officers proposed as a toast, " The 
Clergy of New England — they diaw their theology from the liv- 
ing fountain of God's word, not from tlie stagnant pool of human 
tradition." " That won't do," exclaimed a member of the com- 
mittee on invitations : " we have invited Bishop Hughes." Sure 
enough, that toast would not do at a dinner to which a Romish 
prelate had been invited. It would have been an insult ; and 
does it not follow that the memory of our fathers was insulted 
by the opposite course ? Certainly the least which courtesy de- 
mands is, that every celebration of principles and men, whatever 
they be, should be unembarrassed by the opposite opinions. If 
those who hold opposite opinions, in whole or in part, choose, for 
any reasons, to be present, tliey go in submission to the occasion, 
and not to require that the occasion shall submit to them. We 
would treat ail men with the deference which is due to the occa- 
sions on which we meet them. If we should visit the King or 
the Pope, we should do it with the expectation of conforming to 
all the established etiquette of their presence. But if all the 
popes and kings on earth should come to the Pilgrim dinner, it 
should not hinder us from shouting, " A Church without a Bishop 
and a State without a King; !" 



394 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

GRANTS TO CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, July 29, 1847.] 

The State and city governments are overwhelmed with de- 
mands for grants to charitable institutions and for charitable ob- 
jects. Many of these appear in forms the most corrupting to the 
minds of our rulers. They are backed up by the usefulness of the 
institutions, the clamor of sympathy for the suffering, the charges 
of want of sympathy against the opponents of such grants, and 
above all the threat that all the powers of charity shall be exert- 
ed to vote down the opponents of its demands. These means are 
not all resorted to on every occasion, but they are the natural and 
common resort. But the question generally lies deeper than 
these things. It is a question of right and of general expediency. 
If the friends of an excellent charity were to come to you, and 
ask you to steal your neighbor's property and give it to them, 
and sliould go on to urge the excellency of the charity, and the 
hard-heartedness of rejecting their plea, you would certainly say 
that all tliat had nothing to do with the case. " The pi'operty is 
not at my disposal," you would say, and think the man a thief 
who would urge you farther. This is the answer which we must 
teach our legislators to give to these petitions for charitable aid. 
" We are not authorized to give away the public property, but 
merely to manage it for the public use," must come to be the an- 
swer to all these demands, or the property of the whole country 
will be given away, and we shall all be the beneficiaries of charity. 
No possible shape of charity could be worse than that which is 
assumed in Great Britain and our own country, a mingling of 
public and private action. Private charity begins the institutions, 
and government is expected to perfect and sustain them. No 
plan or want of plan could be worse than this. It demoralizes 
the whole system of government. A number of individuals join 
together and establish a public institution, — a college or asylum, 
perhaps. Possibly the motive is purely charitable ; possibly it is 
purely selfish. The nature of the institution is public ; that is, it 
proposes to do a benefit to all who feel its influence, and it invites 
the whole community to come and receive its benefits. They be- 
gin the institution, and give it some shape, and form around it a 
circle of friends. Then the public are " deemed and taken" to 
be bound for its support. The parties who have started the en- 
terprise have not inquired whether they were able to carr}'^ it 
through. Nor indeed were they obliged to do so, for they calcu- 
lated beforehand that the State, or city, or the nation, might be 
relied upon to make up all deficiencies. Universal private solici- 
tation may be first resorted to, and if this is only done without 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 395 

any false pretenses, it is not particularly objectionable. But mo- 
ney comes too slowly when only given by those who own it. To 
get abundant supplies it is necessary to go to those ivlio give 
away other people s monei/, — Congress, or the State Legislature, 
or the Common Council of the city— to some body of men, who 
are none the poorer themselves for the money they give away, 
and may be richer in good opinions, and perhaps in vote.s, for 
their charity. Evidently such a system must have limits set to 
it, or it will give away everything. Here are a thousand little 
gatherings of individuals devising plans of expenditure for the 
public. The public are not called to the primary consultations. 
Everything is begun upon the voluntary principle, and then 
thrown off upon the shoulders of the public. The public under- 
take the education of all the children, and the support of all the 
paupers, and that is a burthen which is as yet unweighed ; but in 
these institutions of private ongin is another field of public ex- 
penditure, boundless in its extent and thoroughly demoralizing in 
its form. Considerations like these must, we are persuaded, be 
brought in to control, nay, to forbid, the practice which has been 
going on and strengthening, until it is almost uncontrollable. The 
British Government are involved in difficulties which confound 
their statesmen. They have been driven to the endowment of 
Maynooth as one expedient. The endowment is right as a simple 
matter of adjustment, under a principle, however, which is en- 
tirely erroneous. A Protestant nation is compelled by its own 
erroneous practice, to endow Catholic institutions. They will be 
compelled, on the same plan, to endow infidel institutions, — all 
sorts of institutions ; for the doctrine now laid down is, that all 
who contribute to the public treasure are entitled to equal bene- 
fits in the distribution of that treasure, without inquiry as to their 
faith. What utter confusion must such a doctrine produce ! 
When we say that all citizens are entitled to equal protection un- 
der the government, to equal justice, and to an equal share in all 
the benefits of the government, to the full extent of protection in 
" life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we say that which 
is easily understood and done. But when we undertake to keep 
up this even-handed equality, in the support of all their enterprises, 
literary, religious, agricultural, mechanical, charitable, and every- 
thing else, we are in utter confusion. The money of the State 
is given to build up one institution, and then to build another to 
pull down the first, and universal dissatisfaction must be the end. 
We have repeatedly stated these views, more or less distinctly, 
and applied them against granting various requests, pending be- 
fore some branch of government. We wish now particularly to 
oppose them to the application of the Asylum for the Deaf and 



396 PROVISION FOR THE POOR. 

Dumb, -wliich is pending before the Common Council. We aro 
glad to find that such principles are recognized by some of the 
nieraoers. We hope they will be sustained by the A-oice of every 
good citizen. It ought to be said in tones not to be misunder- 
stood, that it is not competent for the Common Council to c/ive 
away the property of the city. They have rightfully no such 
powQr. The property is not theirs, and they have no right to 
give it to the Asylum. This is a good time to say the truth and 
act upon it ; for the Asylum in question is one of our most e.xcel- 
leat institutions. There is no doubt about its usefulness. But 
the Common Council have no right to comply with their re- 
quest. It would be a piece of usurpation in them, of violation of 
their plain duty, though only such a violation as has been often 
committed. We say, No ! to all those things, and the City 
Council must say, No, or the city will be ruined ; and that will 
be a worse result, than that an excellent institution should be left 
for its support to its legitimate resources. 



PROVISION FOR THE POOR. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, JVovember 25, 1847.] 

Both the intellect and physical faculties depend upon use for 
their development. Necessity is the mother of invention, and 
so she is of every strong, well formed, desirable faculty. Such 
is the natural repugnance of our natui'e to. effort, that all possible 
motives are necessary to rouse us to vigorous action. The man 
of wealth finds it impossible to give to his children the energy 
wliich he sees in the children of his less prosperous neighbors. 
His own children will trust in their father's we?dth, while those 
Avho have no such enfeebling support trust in themselves. 
Sometimes the children of the rich, if they are fortunate enough 
to lose their patrimony, prove to have resources which neither 
they nor others supposed them to possess. Sometimes an unex- 
pected difficult}^ thrown across the path of a moderate man, will 
start him into a new career ; and persecution creates saints and 
heroes out of common every-day characters. Sometimes a deli- 
cate lady who seemed fitted only for the toilet, when left a desti- 
tute widow, is stimulated by a mother's love to more than 
masculine eftbrt for the support and honor of her children. Her 
character is transformed by the change in her condition. Neces- 
sity stirs us to meet it, while, without any necessity, human 
nature sinks down inert and worthless. This is the tendency, 
though occasional, perhaps numerous, exceptions occur. The 



PROVISION FOR THE POOR. 397 

hope of fame or of increased wealth, and some'lmes the benevo- 
lent desii'e of doing good, will stir the human powers to high 
Twchievements. But these are exceptions ; and iimong the igno- 
rant, the superstitious and debased, such cases are rare indeed. 
It is unnecessary to say, after such statements, that the gen- 
eral policy witli refei-ence to the poor, which lias been pursued 
in England and America, is perfectly fitted to unnerve and 
destroy society. It meets men who have entertained high 
hopes, and held high places perhaps, whenever discouraged by 
disappointment and ditRculty, and instead of encouraging them 
to new and wiser efforts, invites them to give up, and retire 
to public support. To the man who charges his misfortunes to 
the community or the government, the alms-house says, " Come, 
eat of my bread, and Uve at the expense of your persecutors." 
To the ignorant, the vicious and lazy, the alms-house is a sort of 
elysium where they may bask in undisturbed indolence. The 
enfeebling influence of the alms-house is much increased by the 
fact that every one feels that he has a right to go and live there. 
The pauper thanks nobody for his daily bread ; not he. He is 
a citizen. He has perhaps paid taxes, or done military or jury 
duty ; and the support which he finds in this public institution, 
he feels, is connected with his citizenship ; and he lives there 
with the most entire feehng that he is at home, eating at his 
own table. This characteristic attaches to all charitable associa- 
tions. Tiie money which is given to trustees for the use of the 
poor, belongs to the poor. They, therefore, are under no obliga- 
tion to thank the trustees. Associations have this other evil 
tendency, that they break up the natural connection between the 
various classes of society. He who gives, and he who receives, 
are separated from each other, whereas they should be well 
acquainted. Some shapes of associations are more objectionable 
than others in this respect, but all are objectionable, though per- 
haps judicious on the whole, notwithstanding all objections. 
It is exceedingly difficult for the poor to repress the feeling, that 
want on their part implies obligation to supply want on the 
part of those who are favored with a surplus. This feeling 
is not without a good basis in fact, so far as want is the conse- 
quence of misfortune, and not of indolence or extravagance. 
But our object in these remarks is not so much to discuss 
the obligations of the prosperous, as to inquire how those obh- 
gations can be discharged without increasing thf evil which they 
desire to cure. If gi\ing to the poor in any one way under- 
mines human energy and increases pauperism, it is a vice to 
give, unless it is absolutely necessary to save life. 

It is quite evident that the pauper policy of England and 



398 PROVISION FOR THE POOR. 

America is accumulating an extent of pauperism which threatens 
the very existence of the mother country, and which is fearfully 
disorganizing society in this. Some remedy must De found ; 
some new mode of charity must be discovered, or industry 
will be crushed under the insupportable burden of poverty. 
We must say, that in this country at least, nine-tenths of 
the pauperism is unnecessary. Most of the paupers, while 
they live in the alms-house, are as able to support themselves as 
the industrious poor who bear the double burden of their 
own support and that of their indolent neighbors in the poor- 
house. And of the rest, most of them suffer only on the fixed 
law of God, in consequence of their vices. A few, a very few, 
are what are called " virtuous poor ;" and no one will say aught 
against the obligation of the prosperous to make them comfort- 
able. The opinion that paupers are able to support themselves, 
is sustained by the fact, that in well-conducted workhouses, they 
do support themselves, and pay the expenses of the estab- 
lishment, and more besides : — so that well-regulated work- 
houses are a source of profit to the towns which have estab- 
lished them. The occupations of these workhouses are simple, 
of course, and such as require no special skill. How abun- 
dantly could such paupers support themselves, if they should 
apply themselves with the vigor of freemen, instead of the indo- 
lence of paupers. In general, too, beyond incidental advice and 
encouragement, every man can better understand and direct his 
own energies, than any other person can direct them for him. 

That the present system must be abandoned, is coming to be 
more and more the opinion of intelligent men ; and this, not 
from any feeling of unkindness toward even the vicious poor, 
but to save society from being engulfed in pauperism. 

We suggest that the fundamental wrong in the present system 
is the doctrine that it is the province of (government to distribute 
alms. It is this erroneous view of the powers and duties of gov- 
ernment that lies at the bottom of the monstrous evil. The 
same error with respect to rehgion, literature, and many other 
things, has been productive of the direst mischief. It is a great 
evil that the proper sphere of government is so loosely defined, 
if defined at all. To the government men go for the correction 
of all evils, real or imaginary ; and government is commonly 
quite willing to enlarge its prerogatives to any extent. Our 
fathers described the proper duties of government with admi- 
rable truth. They said that governments were instituted to 
secure the inalienable rights of men ; and these rights they 
declared with equal accuracy to be " life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness." Yet our community, regardless of these 



PROVISION FOR THE POOR. 399 

great truths, tliiiik government should inspect fish, measure 
corn, reguhite the rate of usance, and almost be the market-man 
and cook of every family. Some progress, we hope, is making 
in a right practice, — but the grand simplicity, the only lawful 
business of government, is very little perceived. Certainly the 
distribution of alms is not the proper business of government, 
either national or municipal. 

Another fundamental reform must be, to place the support of 
the poor really and truly in its proper attribute, not of right, but 
of charitij. It is right that pauperism should be restrained by 
the acknowledgment of this great truth. 

Farther, relief should be divested of its certainty. Charitjj 
ought to be precarious and uncertain. The industrious ant and 
bee would be unnerved by the knowledge that the winter's store 
would be sure without the summer's toil ; and certainly our 
race, more indolent than the insects, can never endure the 
enfeebling influence of such a fact. It is easy to see that the 
people who fill our alms-house can never have hearts to work, 
while elegant case and leisure are provided for them on Ran- 
dall's Island, with greater certainty, to the end of their days, 
than any industrious man holds the house which he has paid for. 

These suggestions contemplate great reforms, and many will 
think, great hazards. But it is well to encounter great hazards 
in the hope of avoiding certain ruin. 

In our own countrj^ more safely perhaps than in any other, 
may charity be left to the charitable. There is in no other 
country more ability or disposition to relieve the distressed ; and 
in no other country is the wide field of self-reliance so success- 
fully opened as here. Here the demand for labor is boundless ; 
wages high, living cheap. Here, if anywhere, each man can 
and ought to take care of himself, and all schemes of furnishing 
food, clothing, or even labor, systematically .^ on any other plan 
than that of the free exercise of every man's liberty in his own 
behalf, will be found to be but rottenness in the bones of the 
commonwealth. 



400 TEMPERANCE AND POLITICS. 

TEMPERANCE AND POLITICS. i 

[From the Journal of Commerce, October 6, 1838.] 

The laws regulating or prohibiting the sale of spirituous 
liquors are likely to have an important bearing on the elections in 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In both those States, laws 
have been enacted with the design of preventing the retail spirit 
trade altogether. It seems to us that the friends of temperance 
need to apply the remedy somewhat to their logic, as well as to 
their appetites. They charge distillers and dealers with crimes 
of which they are not guilty, and assert that because they are 
dealers, they are incapable of judging on the question. This is 
"no such answer as a good cause need give to opposing arguments, 
and it can be no answer to intelligent minds. If a man were in 
dano-er of being hanged, it would be very possible that he might 
give very good reasons why such a punisliment should not be in- 
flicted upon him. But, whether his reasons were sufficient or in- 
sufficient, no sensible judge would think of setting aside his de- 
fense, on the ground that he was too deeply interested to be able 
to judge in the case. 

On the other hand, it seems to us the dealers must fail entirely 
in their position, that the laws prohibiting the retail trade are 
unconstitutional. The business does more mischief to society 
tlian all other causes put together. It destroys life, peace, pro- 
perty, and everything which is held most dear, and annually 
throws its thousands of ruined victims upon society, to be sup- 
ported by the money of those who have had no share in tlic 
profits of their ruin. If society has not the right to stop this, 
we know not for what society is formed. If this business is not 
ai-ainst the general welfare, what is? The vending of lottery- 
tickets is not a tenth part so bad ; yet the spirit-dealers will not 
pretend the laws prohibiting their sale are unconstitutional. 
Society possesses the power to prohibit and prevent all tliose pur- 
suits by individuals, which interfere with the general well-being 
of the whole. And the power is in fact exeicised much beyond 
this limit ; for a multitude of pursuits are forbidden which are 
nowise injurious — nay, which are positively useful. [The pro- 
hibitions, to be sure, are always on the ground that the prohibited 
occupation is injurious.] Now if society may forbid those things 
which are only imagined to be injurious, and those things Avhich 
are injurious only in a small degree, — in fact, prohibit everything 
supposed to be bad, — then it would be very strange if it could 
not prohibit the greatest of all evils, that which stalks abroad, 
desolating the land. 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 401 

COLD WATER DINNERS. 
[Front the Journal of Commerce, December 10, 1841.] 

A puiiLic dinner wiLliout wine is a new aiu strange thing. 
Wine has been supposed to be the soul of wit, ;he spirit of con- 
viviality, Hnd the very genius of inspiration. Pcots have written, 
artists painted, orators declaimed, and dinner-parties roared, 
under its impulses, until it has come to be thought that there 
could be neitlier wit nor skill without it. But a lew experiments 
lately have started the query whether there is not more inspira- 
tion ill cold water than in wine. There is an old saAv that, " when 
wine is in, wit is out ;" which has lived all along, in spite of pub- 
lic sentiment to the contrary. Especially at dinners it has been 
noticed that whether the wit grew brighter with each succeeding 
bowl or not, the laugh grew louder, until the lai gh getting ahead 
of the wit, would roar before it listened. It has been noticed, 
too, that when gentlemen were about to drink wine after dinner, 
it was thought necessary that the ladies should v.ithdraw. This 
was always a bad sign, for it is well known that when a man is 
about to make himself a brute, he commonly tirns away from 
his wife and daughters, and from all respectable females, or 
drives them away from him. This fact has thrown suspicion on 
the motive for turning the ladies away from the dinner-table at 
the moment the wine was brought on, and upon the conduct 
which succeeded, under the change of influences. Most men, 
so long as they are conscious that their conduct is reputable and 
right, are fond of the society of ladies, especially on all occasions 
of social enjoyment. Woman was designed to be the constant 
companion of man. Her promptings put him np to his duty, 
and her reproofs keep him back from excess. The man who is 
going to a convivial scene where he cannot take his wife, is gene- 
rally going where he should not. 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, January 14, 1843.] 

Tins has been one of the most, if not quite the most remark- 
able movement of this remarkable age. A war had been kept 
up against intemperance from time immemorial. But nothing 
was really accomplished until about twenty year; ago, when total 
(ihsfinonce was thought of. That thought brigi:tened the hopes 
of philanthropists, and brought them up onc'- more to the 
conflict, with more energy than before. Total -.bstinence from 
distilled liquors, was the motto on their banuer. The new 



402 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 

thoui'lit, however, did not create courage enough to attempt the 
reformation of those ah'eady accustomed to drunkenness. Tiiey, 
it was supposed, were beyond the reach of kindness and of hope, 
and nothing really was done for them until they took their deh- 
verance into their own hands, and declared that they would no 
longer submit to the shame and misery of their condition. Re- 
formed drunkirds went everywhere preaching the year of re- 
lease to the captives of intemperance, and their labors were at- 
tended with great success. They knew how to pity and persuade 
those who remained in the wretchedness from which themselves 
had escaped. Their labors for a time were wonderfully ener- 
getic, and wonderfully successful. \V"e have heard much less of 
them this year than last, but we hope it is not because the vigor 
of the elTort has been rela.ved. There have been some things about 
the movements of the reformed drunkards, which have made us 
to doubt of the stability of their work, though we have Loped 
for the best, and done what we could to cheer them on. 

In the first place, we have noticed in almost all the speeches of 
reformed drunkards, a great want of the humility and repentance 
which ought to have characterized their new position. Many times 
they ha\e in fact seemed to glory in their former shame, and to be 
proud in proportion to the number and extent of the revolting 
scenes in which they had been actors. A man who can repeat with 
glorying the beastly doings of his drunken days has attained but 
an outside reformation. No being on earth is more odiously guilty 
than a drunkard. His obligations to himself, to his family, to 
society, and to God, have all been broken, — trampled under foot. 
Look at the beast who goes home drunk at night to the society 
of a virtuous wife and his dependent children, to besmear the 
house witli his filth, and perhaps to vent his wild passions on 
them in curses and blows. The only fit residence for such a being 
is hell ; and to his appropriate destiny he is hastening. When 
such a man is mercifully rescued from his drunkenness, words of 
contrition and deep repentance become him. If his reformation 
extends to the heart, he will never repeat the history of his life 
but with deep shame, and only to warn others to avoid his guilt. 

Another noticeable feature in the movements of the reformed 
drunkards is the abjuratiou of religious influences. If they had 
cast off sectarianism merely, their wisdom in that particular would 
not have been questioned. But when tho}^ reject, as they have, 
the teachings of Jesus Christ and the whole Bible, they commit a 
most dangerous mistake. There are nowhere to be found such 
lessons of temperance as in the Bible, and nowhere else are they 
enforced by such sanctions. Men who attempt to inculcate mo- 
rality without the influence of religion, now that we have the 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 403 

Bible, are behind the age. They practice quackery, after an in- 
fallible remedy has been discovered. If some of the reformed 
orators would sit down to the reading of the Bible, they would 
probabl)' find that they have another reformation to go through 
with, before they can be safe. They will find that their hearts 
must be reformed, as well as their lives. Christian philanthropy 
it was, which devised the temperance reformation, and which, by 
the labors of twenty years, kindled and fed the sentiments of re- 
formation that at length burst out so ardently. There are mo- 
tives not connected with religion, which would seem sufficient to 
keep a man back from making a beast of himself; natural affec- 
tion, a good name, the desire of wealth, or at least of personal 
comfort, are all powerful motives. But they lose nothing by be- 
ing associated with religion. On the contrary, the Christian re- 
ligion exhibits all these motives in their most attractive form, and 
by its own sanctions adds immeasurably to their force. Looking 
at the subject from any position, whether that of a Christian or 
a mere philosopher, we cannot help seeing that to reject the aid 
of religion in such an enterprise is to cast away our most efficient 
helper. But every Christian will feel that a temperance refor- 
mation which rejects the influence of religion is likely to be as 
shallow in its moral power as it is in its philosophy, and as tran- 
sient as it is shallow. 

The temperance books are, some of them, of a very improper 
character. They are recitals, it may be, of the incidents of a 
rowdy's life, through all the hst of low vices. " The Inebriate" 
is a sample. Books of this class, if they were found in the hands 
of rowdies, and prepared for their amusement, would be con- 
sidered most pernicious, by the people who now praise them if 
only labeled "Temperance." The vulgarity and pollution of 
Bulwer and Byron are justly deprecated, and cannot be sanctified 
by being enlisted in the cause of morality. Many persons visited 
the "great moral painting" of Adam and Eve, who would have 
applied to the police to suppress the monstrous exhibition, if it 
had been called what it really was. Yet the immoral etiect of 
the exhibition was perhaps quite as great under its assumed as it 
would have been under its proper character. We cannot change 
the nature of poison by calling it bread. 



404 BREACHES OF THE SABBATH. 

BREACH OF THE SABBATH. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, Api-i! 25, 1834.] 

It is Avitli deep regret we have learned tliat Messrs. Webster 
and Binuey prosecuted their journey from PI iladelphia to Wash- 
ington during the last Sabbath, and at Bal imore addressed a 
great number of citizens upon the political topics of the day. • 
Both these gentlemen, and more particularly Mr. Webster, we 
have always delighted to honor. His greataess and patriotism, 
his intelligence, and we have always believi-d his reverence for 
religion, have fastened upon him our admiracion and confidence. 
If we now mention our regret at the events of the last Sabbath, 
it is not for the purpose of lessening him in the public esteem, 
but to counteract, so far as we are able, the influence of a bad 
example, the more to be dreaded from such a man. We under- 
stand and appreciate the interest of affairs at Washington which 
urged Mr. Webster to violate his habits and his feelings on this 
occasion. But we do not see that any e.xcuse can be pleaded for 
what occurred at Baltimore. We are fully convinced that it is 
only by maintaining a respectful public sentiment toward the 
institutions of religion, especially the Sabbath, that enough of 
public virtue and intelligence can be maintained to perpetuate 
our free institutions. 



SABBATH-DAY TRAVELING. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, August 20, 1835.] 

We are glad to see that the Directors of the Boston and Prov- 
idence Railroad have discontinued their trips on Sunday, e.vcept 
one each way in connection with the steamboats. We wish their 
order had been without this exception, and that they had made 
the Sabbath thoroughly a day of rest. It would have been a 
noble example for all the railroads and canals of our country. 
The violation of that day upon these great lines of communica- 
tion is among the most prolific causes of poverty and crime. 
We are fully persuaded that six days for labor and the seventh 
for rest, is an arrangement exactly fitted to our condition, and . 
that no man who violates this arrangement can be so happv, and 
manage his affairs so well, as in its observance. 

On railroads there is less apology for violating the Sabbath 
than exists almost everywhere else. Transmission is so rapid 
that six days are sufficient to send a man. from Maine to Georgia. 
Passengers may go from Boston and Providence, or from Boston 
to Providence, on Monday morning before the hours of business 



C H V I ^ G K E \V S P A P E R S ON SUNDAY. 405 

arrivi!, and in general it must be impossible to plead necessity, 
or even convenience, for breaking the rest of the Sabbath at all. 
We hope the very respectable men who have the direction of the 
matter, patriots and Christians as they ai-e, will do their country 
the signal service of making their reform perfect. 



CRYING NEWSPAPERS ON SUNDAY. 
[From the Journal of Commeve, July 10, 1839.] 

There is scarcely a greater public nuisance to which our 
citizens are subject, than the continual ciying of newspapers 
by boys in the streets on Sunday. No part of tTie city is exempt 
from the annoyance. No hour of the day, from early dawn 
till mid-day and later. P^ven the hour of worship is invaded by 
the never-ceasing cry. We will say nothing of the immorality 
of the practice ; nor of the probable consequences to the boys 
themselves, of being engaged in such employments on the Sab- 
bath, instead of devoting the day to the purposes for which 
it was designed. We will not speak of the probable effect 
of such reading on the Sabbath as by this process is thrust upon 
thousands of persons, old and young. All these, however, are 
important considerations, and if duly weighed, could not fail 
to produce a strong sensation in the community. But our 
object now is of a different kind. We wish to show that 
independent of any such considerations, our citizens are wronged 
and abused by the incessant noise and outcry with which the 
vending of newspapers is accompanied on the Sabbath. Throuo-h- 
out the C'hristian world, this day is regarded as consecrated by 
the Almighty to the purposes of religion. It is also considered, 
in its influence, a most important conservator of the public 
morals. Without the Sabbath, we may safely say that a repub- 
lican government could not long exist. Legislators have been 
aware of the tendency of the day to promote the best interests of 
society, and accordi;:gly they have guarded it with the sanctions 
of law. They have done this also, to protect the rights of wor- 
ship, and the private enjoyment of the day, by those who 
aie disposed to devote it to its appropriate duties. A continual 
noise in the streets, when unnecessar)% is an invasion of these 
rights and this enjoyment. The laws indeed would go further. 
TIr'3'- prohibit buyiu'^ and selling on the Sabbath, except in par- 
ticular cases, of which the selling of newspapers is not one. 
Now it appears to us, that if the proprietors of newspapers 
are suffered thus to violate the laws, they ought at least to be 



406 CLOSING STORES ON THE SABBATH. 

restrained, both bv their own sense of propriety and by the anu 
of the hvw if needful, from encroaching upon the peace of their 
fellow-citizens by sending a thousand boys to fill the streets with 
confusion. It is a liberal compromise in their favor to wink 
at the hawking of newspapers through the streets on the Sab- 
bath, and at the same time to insist upon its being done, if at all, 
in silence. 

The evil complained of is of recent origin, and it is high time 
it was abated. If the distributors of tracts (pardon the suppo- 
sition) were equally noisy in performing their duties, they would 
not be tolerated for an hour. No, the very men who abet the 
noise of a thousand boys in the distribution of newspapers 
would be scandalized by such a gross infringement upon their 
rights. 



CLOSING STORES ON THE SABBATH. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, June 28, 1844.] 

The laws requiring a proper observance of the Christian Sab- 
bath are good and wholesome laws, in accordance with the wishes 
of a vast majority of the people, and necessary to the highest 
Avelfare of the community. In a republican government, espe- 
ciallv, the public safety demands that moral influences should be 
promoted and the avenues of vice obstructed. All experience 
proves that there can be no well regulated liberty where the pub- 
lic morals are generally depraved, and that about in proportion as 
the Sabbath is disregarded in any community, is the depravation 
of its morals. Laying aside, therefore, the sanctions of the Di- 
vine Law, which, over a Christian people, ought to be paramount, 
the public safety demands that at least a decent respect should 
be paid to the day which ninety-nine hundredths of the (Christian 
world are agreed in regarding as the Lord's day, or Sabbath of 
the new dispensation. The fact that a few thousand Jews are in- 
cluded in the number of our citizens is no good reason why as 
many millions of other denominations should be denied the quiet 
enjoyment of a day which they regard as di\inely appointed, or 
permit it, as in France, during the reign of terror, to be blotted 
from the statute-book. On the same principle, if there were a 
few thousand Mahometans among us, we might not enact laws 
against polygamy, because thereby we might be trenching upon 
the rights of conscience of a portion of the people who believed 
in the Koran. In vain should we plead that polygamy was for- 
bidden by the Christian religion, which was the religion of the ' 



CLOSING STORES ON THE SABBATH. 407 

vast majority of the people, or that it was hurtful to public 
morals and the general weal ; the consciences of these few Mahom- 
etans must be protected at every hazard, for, in the language 
of our correspondent, " the laws of this great nation extend to 
every man the enjoyment of his religion." To compel a man to 
do a positive act in violation of his conscience, is one thing ; to 
compel him to omit certain acts, which from the nature of the 
case are not obligatory upon his conscience, is another. We 
never heard it intimated that a Jew's conscience was wounded by 
not .selling goods publicly on the Lord's day, or that a grog-shop 
keeper's conscience suffered from not selling liquor on that day. 
We sincerely respect the conscientious belief of any and every 
man in matters of religion, however erroneous that belief may 
be ; (in this category wo place our Jewish brethren ;) but when 
men's consciences are clamorous for breaking the laws both of 
God and man, and for destroying both the bodies and the souls 
of men, not six days in the week only, but seven, (we here al- 
lude to grog-sellers,) we think it time to ask what is their defi- 
nition of conscience, and whether they have not confounded it 
with the will, which is the ver)' thing that requires to be re- 
strained when it inclines to mischief. 

It is worthy of remark that the opposition to Mayor Harper's 
course in regard to Sunday buying and selling does not come 
chiefly, if at all, from the Jews, but from the grog-sellers ; to 
many of whom Sunday has hitherto been the best day in the 
week. That is, they have sold more liquor on that day than on 
any other. What a comment is this upon the extent of the mis- 
chief which has resulted from permitting grog-shops to be opened 
on the Sabbath ! How many families have suffered for want of 
bread, who might otherwise have had enough and to spare ! 
How much demoralization has ensued, how many crimes have 
been committed, in consequence of this pernicious custom ! Most 
laboring men receive their weekly earnings on Saturday night ; 
and consequently, Sunday is the very day for the grog-dealers to 
catch them with a little money in their pockets. It hurts their 
consciences prodigiously to be deprived of the opportunity to 
have the first access to these hard earnings. We advise them to 
rest satisfied with six days in the week for the administering of 
poison to their patients, and then sending them to destruction, 
and their families to the Alms House, to be supported at the pub- 
lic expense. 



408 ACKNOWLEDGING GOD. 

"ACKNOWLEDGING GOD" 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, September 15, 1845.] 

It is agreeable to the taste of some Americans to pronounce 
their country a.: atheistical and " God-rejecting" country, be- 
cause the Cono>'itution of the Union says nothing upon the 
subject. There : re some also, generally of the " pre-millennial" 
school, who lay ;.he same charge upon our ancestors, because in 
forming the Coa>titution they neglected to assert the dignity of 
Jesus Christ as •• Prince of the kings of the earth," and to deter- 
mine the questi.;i.' of the Trinity. All such men forget, or never 
learned, that th--. province of civil government is not to determine 
religious questic i3, and that while it is the duty and privilege of 
every man to :. knowledge God in all his ways, it does not 
follow that eve;y soulless corporation should do the same. In 
Roman Catholic countries nothing can be done without a " By 
the Grace of Gel." In that high and lofty name all abomina- 
tions are perpcr.ated, whether by the Church or State, or 
smaller compan'rs of priests or banditti. The robber on the 
highway is sure 'o act in the name of the Trinity, and to pronounce 
the blessinof in mi name of the Son on his victim as he ijoes oft'; 
a blessing, by t'-"' way, quite as rich in virtue as many which 
come with cons-orated hands uplifted. A board of bank direct- 
tors are not to hi charged with infidelity because their charter 
says nothing abo.it religion, nor because their meetings for dis- 
counting notes '<yii not opened with prayer. Religion is a per- 
sonal matter, ai-o not a matter of governments, unless they are 
corporations for /."ligious purposes. On this plan we secure the 
invaluable privil ge of religious freedom. The nominal religion 
of the State is E'.Lch reduced, but the real religion of the people 
is greatly enlarged. Many good people are quite troubled about 
the Avant of reli ion in the State. But they need not be ; for it 
is on the princ-,.le which is fundamental to the vigor of true 
religion. The rifsign of government is to secure the peaceful 
enjoyment of private rights. The Deist, Atheist, Catholic, Pro- 
testant and Mormon, are all equal in the cognizance of law. 
They are all entitled to examine, believe, and teach, as they 
think proper. The civil government knows nothing of religious 
distinctions, and in fact uothino- of religfious faith. In oaths 
alone it brings ;:"i the use of relisfion, and in that it does not 
assume the pow *" to coerce any one's conscience, but takes the 
Quaker's affirmation as just as valid as his oath. If the prin- 
ciple which lies at the bottom of religious liberty were carried 
out to the extent of abolishing oaths altogether, the credibility 
of witnesses anti. the honesty of judges and importers would not 



A NATIONAL BUTCHERY. 409 

in all probability be thereby impaired. It is liberty, not govern- 
ment, which all the lovers of truth should desire. The interfer- 
ence of government has never done anything yet, but to defoim 
religious truth, while Hberty has made its stream flow peaceiuliy 
and broadly through the land. 

The patriots of the Revolution were not a godless race of 
men, thougli they did not think it expedient to say much upon 
the subject in forming the fundamental law. The work was not 
done without the constant recognition of Jehovah, and much 
prayer for his guidance. 



A NATIONAL BUTCHERY. 
[Fro77i the Journal of Commerce, January 30, 1841.] 

We have been thinking of the matter of supplying all the 
people in the United States with meats, and it seems to us that 
it is one which deserves the attention of the National Govern- 
ment. The subject is of vast importance, and is now utterly at 
loose ends. The supply is left to the mere volition of diovers, 
entirely irresponsible to anybody, so that every citizen in this 
city, and every other city, is left without the least assurance that 
his supply may not be cut off at any moment. We have got 
along under our present system, or we might more properly say, 
total want of sy.stem, better than might have been expected, and 
much better than, we fear, will be the case hereafter. But there 
are now great wrongs which cry aloud for a remedy. There is 
not a little meat of old cows which is atteni^jted to be palmed 
off for good ox beef; measly hogs are put up as good pork; 
animals which are diseased and even which die of themselves, it 
may be of hydrophobia, are dressed, and " blowed up," and sold 
for good and wholesome viands. It is even stated on good au- 
thority, that there are regular sausage-makers who supply them- 
selves Avith raw materinl from the worn-out horses which the 
omnibus owners turn oft" to die, and the small bits of woolen cloth 
which are found on the tailors' shop-floors or the old clothes 
bought by Jew peddlers. It has even been stated, and many 
judicious people believe it, that cats have been sold in the market 
for rabbits, and dog meat for venison. What else could be ex- 
pected while Tom, Dick and Harry are allowed to issue beef, 
pork, and mutton at their pleasure ? The ignorant poor are the 
severest sufferers by this Locofoco way of doing things ; for they, 
having less knowledge and less power, are aiways made the prey 
of the crafty. If things go on in this way — and they will unless 
the government interferes — there is no telling what frightful evils 
18 



410 A NATIONAL BUTCHERY. 

may come upon us. Suppose, for instance, and the thing is not at 
all impossible, that some drover from the west, with his flock of 
cattle filling all the road, should fall upon a kennel of rabid 
wolves or dogs, which flying upon the cattle, should inoculate 
the whole herd with the deadly virus of their fangs. Would the 
drover ever tell of the incident ? Not he. On the contrary, he 
would hurry his cattle on to the Bull's Head where, foaming with 
fatigue and madness, they would be sold to the butchers, and the 
next day the whole city would be unsuspectingly dining upon 
their flesh. What the final eff"ect would be, we forbear to tell. 
Then suppose the drovers should, through mistake or design, 
drive all the cattle and sheep to New Oi'leans, under the influence 
of a momentary high price there, what would be the danger to all 
other parts of the country ? As we go now, there is plainly no 
certainty that thei-e will be any butchers or drovers. Indeed 
everything is entirely uncertain, fluctuating, frightfully irregular, 
and irresponsible. 

Now il' government is not designed to provide for such an emer- 
gency as this, we ask what in the world it is designed for ? This 
matter takes hold of the very life and e.vistence ot the people. If 
the people all starve to death for tlie want of meat, or are poisoned 
to death with bad meat, there will be little for government to do 
afterward. It is with these views, after the little leflection we 
have given to the subject, that we have determined to lend our 
feeble eflbrts toward the establishment of a National Butchery, 
to regulate this wliole matter. That Congiess has the povver to 
establi.Nh such an institution, there can be no doubt. We argue 
the existence of tliis power in Congress from the following con- 
siderations. 

1st. It is impossible that the wise and benevolent men who 
framed the Constitution, could have forgotten or neglected so 
important a matter as this, especially as they had just emerged 
from a war duiing which there had been one continued series of 
derangements and disorders in the supply of meats, so that even 
the American army wei'e sometimes totally destitute. They were 
also reminded, during their deliberations, every day at dinner, of 
the absolute necessity of meats for the support of legislation. 

2d. But there is no need of relying upon this argument. The 
fraraers of the Constitution did not fail to place in that instrument 
the requisite povver. They gave to Congress the povver to " re- 
gulate commerce among the several States," and what vv^e projiose 
is only the regulation of a portion of that commerce. The power 
to " fix the standard of weights and measures," includes what we 
contend for by the mostn;itural and necessary inference. No one 
will doubt that these weights were designed to weigh meat ; but 



A NATIONAL BUTCHERY. 411 

in order that meat should be weighed, meat must be had, and a 
national butcheiy is the only sure way of secui-ing this end. A 
law, therefoi'e, for this purpose, would come imder the authority 
to " make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carry- 
ing into execution the foregoing powers." 

As to the plan and sti'ucture of the national butcherj^, we would 
make it just like a national bank. There should be a mother 
butchery in the city of New York, with branches in all the States ; 
and we would copy from the laws of New York the plan of com- 
missioners, whose business it shovdd be to examine, once a year 
at least, and as much oftener as they please, each branch butchery 
and each flock of cattle. There should be subordinate commis- 
sioners, who should extend the system in its perfection over all the 
States, so that a complete record shoald be kept of every calf, 
lamb, pig, chicken, and gosling, Avhich should be added to the 
stock ; which returns, being all biought together at the mother 
butchery and then published every montli, would constitute a 
basis of calculation, like the statements of specie in the bank 
vaults. The growth and supply of meats under such a system, 
would be something tangible. Cattle Avould then be more evenly 
distributed than they are at present ; for the reports of the 
brandies would always be a sure guide in this respect. 

In order to establish this system in its most extended benefits, 
it will be obviously proper to prohibit all private slaughter-houses ; 
for we cannot too earnestly uig'e upon our readeis the great 
danger there is of fraud and deception, when trusts so important 
are left to be exercised by private and irresponsible individuals. 
We shall never have a well regulated meat market throughout 
the country, until our plan is adopted. Tliis is the newest Amer- 
ican system, and certainly the most important of all measures of 
this class ; for in its benign operation, it will distribute good 
beef, good mutton, g0(;d turkeys, good everything, in fact, 
through all the garrets and cellars of poverty as well as in the 
palaces of the rich. The details of the matter will furni-^h an 
exhaustless fund for reports and speeches in Congress and the 
State Legislatures. Parties will be formed under its banner, 
which will shake the nation to its center, and make us President 
of the United Slates. But for tliis we care not a rush — our ob- 
ject being solely the good of the people in all the largest sense 
of that term. 

Every body will see what we mean by this rigmarole. It is 
not to throw deiision on the opinion that regulation is necessary 
in currency. Yet, in all soberness, we have no doubt that regu- 
lation is quite as much wanted in meats as in money ; and that if 
only we bad been brought up under a system of regulation re- 



412 VOTE YOURSELF A FARM. 

specting food, we should have thought the arguments used above 
quite conclusive in the case, and should have been more afraid to 
trust free trade for beef than we now are for currency. In either 
case, great regulating establishments would produce endless mis- 
chief, and as the effort at regulation is utterly wrong and per- 
nicious, it can never itself be regulated or modified so as to possess 
any other character. 



VOTE YOURSELF A FARM. 
{From the Journal of Commerce, April 28, 1847.] 

Every American citizeg owns a farm in the wild lands of the 
nation. He owns his proportion of the common domain, and has 
a right to it. It may be it is an hundred acres ; it may be one 
acre. Whatever his proportion is, it belongs to him. But there 
is this about it : Tiie inheritance is not divided so that the 
farm of each one in particular exists in a separate estate, and it 
will not do for one to go and take possession of his farm, and 
still claim l)is old right among the proprietors in common. But 
he is a citizen, and cannot be excluded, nor exclude himself, 
from the benefits of common ownership. The nation makes 
all this right by selling the land. They who wish to take actual 
possession of farms pay into the common property a certain 
small sum of money, which goes for the common benefit. They 
who buy farms in tliis way, and have money, still retain their 
interest as before in the common property, and become owners 
in particular of what they buy. They who do not wish for 
farms in this way get their proportion of the whole. If ten 
men own a stock of merchandise in copartnership, it will not do 
for one partner to sa\r, " I will take possession of that hogshead 
of sugar, and chest of tea, &c., for one-tenth is mine, and plainly 
I own them," while at the same time he continues to claim that 
he is an owner in common, and equally with the other nine, 
in all the remaining property. If he should desire it, the part- 
nership might be dissolved, and after paying the common debts, 
he would be entitled to his tenth of what remained. But our 
national copartnership cannot be dissolved, nor are our common 
debts in any rapid course of payment. We must maintain 
our common ownership, and must hold the property in common, 
or expend the proceeds of it for the common benefit. Is 
not that fair ? Then what honest man will talk of voting himself 
a farm ? 

There is cue thina: in which national reform is wanted ia 



VOTE YOURSELF A FARM. 413 

the direction of these leformers. It is right that society should 
refuse to embarrass itself by protecting the ill-shapen and inju- 
rious contracts of individuals against the common good, and 
especially the vast accumulations of soulless, deathless cor- 
porations, and most of all, religious corporations. What society 
agrees to do, it should do, though to its hurt. But it is under 
no natural obligation to defend the manor leases, or the hundred 
year leases in this city, nor the accumulations of religious 
societies which blight the land. Society engaged to defend the 
manor leases, and should keep its engagement at all hazards. 
Our State lias declared that ic will not hereafter be responsible 
for such leases on " agricultural " lands. But such leases are 
■worse in cities tlian elsewhere, and ought to be put out of 
the protection of the law as much here as in the country. Our 
city suffers immensely bj' the parsimony of old hunkers, Avho 
would carry iheir deeds Avith them to eternity, and clutch thera 
there with the grasp of agony. Some large and beautiful sec- 
tions of our city are almost ruined by this miserable policy 
of never selling. The State should set its face against it ; at 
least, it should withdraw its support from it, and should cease 
to protect church property beyond the immediate uses of the 
society to wliich it belongs. A church of Christ, owning a 
million of dollars' worth of land, or half that sum in land 
or money, is a monster, and will be, if it is not already, a curse 
to religion and society. It is wi'ong for society to nourish 
and protect such sores on the body politic. We speak not 
of the past, but of the future. Old sores must remain, but new 
ones should be prevented. These ideas all national reformers 
should advocate, not the foolish doctrine that the accumulations 
of individuals shall be limited, either in money or land. The 
injury will be much greater than the benefit, from such restric- 
tions. Honest industry will best promote the public good 
by accumulating as it can ; and without the entailment of 
perj)etual leases, there is no danger from such accumulations. 
Every father who is so unwise as to accumulate vast estates is 
pretty sure to be followed by sons or grandsons who will scatter 
faster than he has gatliered. There is no enduring evil here. 
The danger is in the otlier sources which we have pointed out, 
viz., long leases of estates instead of sales, and especially the 
leases and the accumulations of corporations, and above all, 
of religious corporations, which go on to accumulate inter- 
minably, never dying, and never therefore falling into the hands 
of distributors. Our country is growing in wealth, — w^e hope 
not in religious superstitions. But it is high time that we put a 
stop to the tendencies toward an overgrown religious aris- 



414 trades' unions. 

tocracy, liKe that of England or Mexico, whore the people 
are tasked and tioeced into poverty, that wealth enormous may 
be gathered into the hands of a clergy debased as much by 
wealth as the people are by poverty. 



TRADES' UNIONS. 
\^Fiom the Journal of Comimree, April 7, 1835.] 

The Transcript misunderstands our reference to England as 
exhibiting the practical remedy for turn-outs. We do not refer 
to her laws, but to her free principles. Laws against turn-outs 
and combinations, England tried and found unavailing. The en- 
lightened policy of Mr. Huskisson repealed all tliose laws, and left 
the whole matter to the care of individuals and public opinion. 
The result was, that combinations became so arbitrary, as not 
only to place all journeymen in the most absolute slavery to the 
most tyrannical government ever yet established, but to threaten 
the utter ruin of both the employers and employed. This brought 
the employers to a stand, and they were obliged individually to 
determine to employ no workmen who helomjed to the Unions. 
The business of turning out has consequently changed sides, and 
the operation of the present state of things must be to break up 
the Unions ; — a blessing most devoutly to be desired, chietly for 
the sake of the workmen themselves. The results in this free 
country, where no laws have ever been made on the subject, 
will be more speedily attained. The Unions have already lost 
their popularity with a large proportion of the journeymen. Is 
it to be admitted for a moment that a system of tyranny so cruel 
as the Unions adopt, shall flourish here ? A system by which 
the premises of employers are entered without right, and sober 
and peaceable \\\^\\ forced from the honest labors by which they 
support their families, and row^jr/W to march like conscript militia 
through the streets under the command of some foreigner who has 
come here to assert the rights of American citizens? A system 
whose grand engine is/'m/- — fear of outlawry, of ve.xation, nay, of 
midnight maimings and assassination. We have an instructive 
specimen of the temper of these associations and the means they 
use to accomplish their purposes, in a resolution passed by one 
of them the other day, recommending that the tire companies 
should not lend their aid to extinguish tires, in houses built of 
State-Prison marble. We must employ these men to build our 
houses at any wages they choose to decree, and of the materials 



trades' unions. 416 

which they select, or submit to have them burned over our heads 
;it midnii^ht. We shall see about that. 

W(i are glad when labor is richly rewarded. There are no 
men who better deserve to grow lich tlian mechanics. There are 
non(! who are more sure of suc(!(>ss wlum they feike the measures 
to secure it which every man must take. Tiie wealtli, tlie offices 
and the honois of our country arc as free and as open to them 
as to any other class of our citizcms ; and no other class have re- 
ceived them more liberally. There are no expenses of our own 
establishment which we pay more cheerfully than the wages of 
lal)or ; and if by the process of demand, the only one which can 
sustain the price of anything, wages should be raised to double 
their present rates, we should pay them freely. But while there 
remains a drop of American blood in our veins, we will never com- 
bine with any other persons to dej)ress the price of labor, nor 
submit to the dictation of any combination as to the prices we 
shall pay. 



TRADES' UNIONS, 
[FVom the Journal of Commerce, April 10, 1835.] 

The Transcript says it is only a " reasonable" compensation 
that the journeymen seek to establish. Suppose then that we 
should adopt the plan of the Unions, and call together the mem- 
bers of each separate interest to establish for its goods, wares and 
labors, what it deems a " reasonable" price or rate of profits. We 
dare say the Lawyers and Doctors and Clergymen would all think 
it " reasonable" to put the price of their labors up, at least one- 
half. We know that the importers and jobbers of dry goods, and 
the grocers, consider their rates of profit in general quite too low. 
The broker's quarter per cents, arc a mere bagatelle compared 
with what they should be, and as to the money-lenders, they let 
us know wliat they considered " reasonable" in the panic winter 
before last. Ten to one, after the vote had been taken all round, 
the mechanics would find the g(!neral scale raised so high, that 
their relative position would be quite as un-" reasonable" as it 
was before they interfered with the natural order of things. 

Tlie fact is that a way has been provided by a higher Power 
for ascertaining what is " reasonable" in these matters. Princi- 
ples have been laid deep in the an-angement of things, and they 
are very apt to fall into difficulties who undertake to contend 
with these principles. Supply and demand arrange prices " rea- 



416 LABORERS AND EMPLOYERS. 

sonably" and usefully, and peacefully with all. Let us have 
*• Free Trade and no Combinations." 

We might go on to speak of the most unreasonable copartner- 
ships which the Unions create, by which the best men are obliged 
to divide even with the poorest ; we could speak of porter-house 
lists which grow out of these combinations, by which every jour- 
neyman is obliged to submit to the degradation of having his 
name posted up in a tap-house, and wait until his turn comes 
before he can be employed. Such is the degrading tyranny of 
Trades' Unions. They subdue the moral sense, the self-respect, 
the happiness, the interests of all who will submit to them. 



LABORERS AND EMPLOYERS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, July 1, 1835.] 

Nothing was ever niore thorough cant, than the talk about 
oppressing the poor by employing laborers at the current rat(^of 
wages. And nothing in principle is more wicked or dangerous, 
than the doctrine that laborers thus employed have a 7'i(/ht to a 
portion of the property of those who employ them, beyond the 
stipulated amount of wages. Sucli a sentiment subjects property 
to a common distribution at a blow. It takes away the induce- 
ments to industry and frugality, and would bring the whole of 
society to one indiscriminate mass of poverty and wretchedness. 
The man who agrees to labor for a dollar a day, and when he has 
performed the labor receives his dollar, has received all that is 
due ; and he has no more ground for complaint than his employ- 
ers ; provided always that there is no combination among em- 
ployers to depress the price of labor. To teach a different doc- 
trine, is as cruel toward the laboring classes, as it is prejudicial to 
society in general. It makes them discontented and unhappy, — 
and induces them to desert the straight road to_ comfort by in- 
dustr}^ and economy, and to put their trust in agitations and turn- 
outs, means by which no trade ever was or ever Avill be perma- 
nently benefited. 



INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY. 417 

INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY. 

\_Fro7n the Journal of Commerce, March 11, 1836.] 

A WRiTKii in the Post thinks our prescription for the evils in 
tlie condition of the laboring classes, a good one so far as it 
goes, but inadequate to procure a thorough cure without the 
additional item of the suppression of paper money. We tell the 
wiiter, frankly, that we claim no credit as inventors of this 
remedy. It is an old recipe which we found in our grand- 
father's scrap-book, where it was copied from an essay of iJoctor 
P'ranklin. The original author the writer well recollects to have 
heard of, though he is not much imbued with his spirit. The 
Doctor was a very poor printer's boy, but by the thorough use 
of tins simple prescription, he rose above all the evils of his con- 
dition, and made himself of such usefulness to his country, that 
his name will be honored by Americans in all ages. One of his 
adjunct rules was, "time is money." So he never "struck," 
and spent his time parading the streets with a flag. But he 
kept busy. If he could not get one price, he took another; 
and spent all his time in earning something, and then took care 
of what he earned. Neither time nor money with him were 
wasted, not even a groat or an hour ; for his motto with regard 
to both was — 

• "A 



' A penny saved is twopence clear, 
A pin a day is a groat a year." 



The remedy prescribed in the Post belongs to another school 
altogether. Those who take Dr. Franklin's remedy find it quite 
sufiicient ; and those who take the Post's will seldom be inclined 
to take the Doctor's with sufficient thoroughness. This remedy 
of Dr. F.'s must absolutely be taken clear, and without any mix- 
ture of other ingredients. We know hundreds and thousands of 
men who have taken it, and with perfect success ; and they are 
now the very men who own the city. The same way is open to 
all who have no other capital than their hands and a good char- 
acter. Never was the way to wealth so broad and easy as here. 
They who start early in it, before expenses accumulate on them, 
and use Franklin's remedy freely, we will guarantee without 
a premium, that nine out of ten of them, will enjoy a comfortable 
living, and leave estates behind them. But we are sure the 
road to wealth does not lie through Trades' Unions. TLey 
always have cost more than they have come to, and always will. 
So we adhere to our old prescription of industry and economy, 
as the best remedy for the evils of which the laboring classes 
complain. If this does not work a cure, the case is hopeless — 
the patient is incurable. 

18* 



418 BROOMSTICK STRIKES. 

BROOMSTICK STRIKES. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, June 23, 1835.] 

The system of strikes is full of evil for males, but it is horrible 
for females. Mr. Carey has long been troubled with the misera- 
ble condition of things in this country, and his remedy is always 
the same in principle, whether it be called Tariff or Turn-out. 
He mourns over the wretched condition of our manufacturing 
interests, and one of the chief ingredients in this cup of wretch- 
edness is the high price of labor in this country ; and anon, he is 
equally distressed at the cruelly oppressed condition of our 
laboring classes, because the rate of compensation is so very 
low. The whole course of Mr. Carey on all these matters, both 
as to disease and remedy, is one of utter delusion and folly. 
This community is the most healthy in its business of any in the 
Avorld, and if it were sick, his lobelia would only make it sicker. 
There is no country whose population, of all classes, is so abun- 
dantly supplied with all the comforts of life. Ninety-nine hun- 
dredths of all which is said about the depressed condition of 
females and their labor, is mere croaking about nothing, let who 
will say it. If a few aged persons whose sight or other faculties 
have failed, or a few younger persons, whose faculties have never 
been instructed, are able to earn but a pittance, it is not strange 
that such persons should make coarse cotton " shirts for a shilling 
a-jyiece ! f" and what of it ? That shilling will buy almost enough 
of the cloth to make a shirt. Who does not know how ex- 
tremely difficult it is to procure female labor for domestic pur- 
poses, at any price, and who does not know that when such 
females make their appearance abroad, it is in silks and muslins 
so rich and tasty, that there is no distinguishing the maid from 
the mistress ? If they all rode in coaches, when they went 
abroad, we should not complain ; but it is indeed most ridiculous 
to be prating about their distressed condition. The wages of 
female labor are not only higher in this country than in any 
other, but they are as to all practical purposes four times higher 
now than they were thirty years ago. At the beginning of this 
century, hfty cents a week Avas a common price for female labor, 
and fifty cents then was, for their use, not worth so much as 
twenty-five cents now. Then, the wages of a month would not 
buy so much calico as the wages of a week will buy now, and as 
to silks, and laces, and capes, and pelerines, they were not named 
or tliought of. Now, many a woman is able by the labor of her 
hands alone, to clothe herself not only neatly but genteelly, nay, 
elegantly, and laiy up a sum of money annually, which, if pur- 
sued for twenty years, would give her a capital more effective 



FEMALE WAGES. 419 

than nine-tenths of the farmers in New England have been able 
to acquire during their lives. If there are females, who, from 
want of faculties, or loss of faculties, or bad husbands, or numer- 
ous children, are really unable to procure the comforts of life, let 
us look to it and supply their wants. But, in the midst of 
the bounties which Providence pours upon all classes in over- 
flowing abundance, let us not spend in complaints the breath 
which ought to be spent in gratitude, or pour out our philan- 
thropy in dolorous words, breeding discontent. Those who hunt 
for oppression must be hard pushed, if they can find it exercised 
only by those who oflter work at low prices, leaving others at full 
liberty to assume the oppression or let it alone. Honorable men 
and reverend divines might be much better employed than iu 
preaching uneasiness and ill-will from such a text. Still worse is 
it in them, to speak in such a way as to throw the mantle 
of sympathy or excuse over vicious courses. Very few indeed 
among the abandoned Avomen in the United States can plead 
poverty in its direct pressure as an excuse or a motive for their 
wickedness. 

The superior prosperity of our country is attributable to the 
superior liberty of its citizens — to the more full operation of 
God's system of free trade among us. If Mr. Carey will change 
his complaints to thankfulness, and give up his notion of being 
wiser than the Author of systems, and cease to fight against the 
arrangements of free individual action, by which He has provided 
for the highest possible remuneration for labor, Mr. Carey will 
then find his own mind happier, and his labors producing more 
happiness in others. But if he thinks otherwise, let him try 
still longer to stem the stream which has already carried him 
far downward ; he will find its current beyond his control who- 
ever may come to his aid. 



FEMALE WAGES. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, March 1 , 1839.] 

• We advise the seamstresses in each loard, to open a store or hire a 
room, to offer to make coats, waistcoats, and pantaloons at a fixed price; 
and we advise benevolent ladies and gentlemen to have the stuff pur- 
chased for their use, cut out, and carry it to these Ward Depots, and 
encourage these poor seamstresses. It would be a great charity." — Eve. 
Star. 

The above is from a long article in the Star, which is chiefly 
occupied in setting forth the miserable condition of seamstresses. 
When ad\-ice is given to the distressed, it should be such as will 



420 FEMALE WAGES. 

afford permanent relief. The expedient which the Star proposes 
has been tried to some little extent, and found, we believe, only 
a new contrivance for depriving honest women of the little which 
still remained to them. Such shops will seldom be under the 
care of persons to be trusted ; and if they were, they must get 
their support from the labor of those for whom they do business. 
They c;innot increase the wages of the seamstresses. There is 
no ;elief to the poor as a class, in transferring work from those 
who have it, to those who have it not ; and to do so by means 
of an intermediate house which shall effectually cut off all direct 
in'e co'irse between the employers and the employed, is doing great 
m schief. The acquaintanceship which the various wants of the 
community bring about, when left to its ordinary channels, is of 
immense importance to the rich and the poor. To cut off this 
inteicourse is to deprive the poor of their best resource in ex- 
tremity. There is no permanent remedy in the case, better than 
the straightforward operations of free trade. Many women, no 
doubt, cannot well do anything else than use their needles where 
they are. But the gieat mass of the seamstresses can change 
their local habitation and their business, and there is surely in 
this country no great difficulty in such persons getting an honest 
livinnr. We should be oflad, with reo-ard to every individual 
woman, that she had a parlor at her command ; but all women 
cannot spend their time in parlors, and it would be very unwise 
in the community to attempt by charitable efforts, to undertake 
to change the order of thino-s so as to biing about such an uni- 
versal parloring. Equally unwise is the endeavor to sustain an 
undue proportion of persons in any particular condition because 
that condition is more genteel than other conditions. This, we 
suppose, is tlie true secret of the distress among seamstresses. 
There is much less, if there is any distress at all, among cooks, 
chambermaids, and laundresses ; and we suppose, too, that to- 
ward these latter classes there is (juite as substantial a feeling of 
lespcct as toward seamstresses. But sewing has the most of 
that fasL-inating, nondesciipt sort of a thing about it, called gen- 
tiliiy, and for the love of that, thousands have gone half starved and 
without a second dress, when if they would only have parted with 
gentility, they might have had an abundance of everything else, 
and really a better reputation into the bargain. This mania for 
gentility is one of the weaknesses of human nature which per- 
va les all cla-^ses of the community. To support gentility, multi- 
tu 1 's live forever in debt, and subject themselves to the incessant 
torment of duns and sheriffs, almost as much to be dreaded as the 
fiOgs of Egypt. They are much the wisest who go for ungenteel 
but honest comfort and contentment. Want would soon flee from 



INDECENT PICTURES. 421 

the seamstrosses if onl_y gentility Avere turned out of the house, 
and contentment with the allotments of Providence taken home 
in its ])lace. Virtue and happiness would then be much more 
securely possessed, and so would a really good reputation. We 
know of no other thorough working remedy in ihe case. After 
all, if persons are involved in difficulty and want, they should be 
helped ; but the help should always be accompanied with such 
good counsel as will, if possible, enable them to keep out. These 
remarks apply chiefly to young, unmarried females. Women 
who have families of hungry or sick children, who are widows, or 
what is incomparably worse, have husbands who are drunkards, 
are chained to poverty, do whijt they will, and ought to be re- 
garded with especial compassion. But, even with thera, good 
advice is often what they need most. 



THE PICTURES AND THE PUBLIC TASTE. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, July 31, 1833.] 

It is very well that the papers have opened a battery against 
the indelicate exhibitions in the windows of print-shops. Let 
them keep up the fire until all such windows are smashed to 
atoms in 2Jublic estimation, and until no decent person will enter a 
place the external attractions of which are indecent. But there 
is another and deeper evil to be cured than this. It is the want 
of correct principles in the formation and guidance of the public 
taste. What are the rules which regulate and limit exhibitions 
of this sort ? With the public generally, there are none. This 
want of all metes and bounds has left us to run into the wildest 
extremes of inconsistency, and made us objects of the surpiise 
and laughter of other nations. One declares that the short 
dresses of fashionable ladies, a few weeks ago, were immodest 
and ridiculous ; another, with perhaps equally honest intentions, 
runs upon the P'rench doctiine of "evil to him who evil thinks." 
The one will hardly permit the common display of the human form ; 
while the other, or perhaps the same, upon a difteient occasion, 
and under different circumstances, acts upon a rule which has no 
stopping-place short of making all apparel a mere matter of indi- 
vidual Uiste, governed by no abstract and independent rules. 
When the French dancers, with tight pantaloons and kilts, kicked 
up their heels on the boards of the theaters, the virtuous and 
thinking part of the community cried out that it was an outrage 
upon ail decency. And so it was. When those innocent babies, 
tho chanting cherubs, were exhibited, they could hardly be 



422 THE GREEK SLAVE. 

looked at but through fan-sticks. But when an ingenious artist 
exhibited a whiskered liussar, with a beautiful Parisian courtesan 
at his side, elegantly painted in native nakedness, and called them 
Adam and Eve ! ! husbands took their wives, and mothers took 
their daughters, and lovers took their sweethearts, and ladies and 
gentlemen who were not lovers, young and old, thronged to see 
it. Even benevolent individuals asked that, as a boon, the picture 
might be exhibited for the benefit of their favorite relio-ious and 
moral charities. And so the better feehngs were enlisted to bring 
out all to view a picture decidedly more objectionable than the 
worst picture at any print-shop window in the city. Public sen- 
timent must be anchored to some well settled and immovable 
principles on this subject, such as it has not now, or we shall float 
out upon a practice Avhich is without a shore. The subject is one 
of great interest and some difficulty. 



THE GREEK SLAVE. 
\_JFyom the Journal of Commerce, October 13, 1847.] 

Whether names change things in reality or not, they change 
the idea in people's minds very much. We had a French sol- 
dier and a Parisian courtesan exhibited here some years ago, 
under the name of Adam and Eve ; and it was quite fashionable 
to visit the exhibition. But if the picture had been called by its 
right name, it would have had a very different reception. Yet 
the thing really was the Frenchman and courtesan, and nothing 
else in the world, not even clothing. People have come under so 
strong an impression that civilization demands that the human 
form should be covered, and that only barbarians practice other- 
wise, that to countenance anything else is felt to be a barbaric 
degradation. In an article by Rev. Orville Dewey, on " Powers* 
Greek Slave," in Mrs. C. M. Kirkland's Union Magazine, the writer 
says :— 

" According to the true laws of art, can that be right in a statue 
which would be wrong, improper, disgusting, in real life ? Art pro- 
poses the representation of something that exists, or may properly and 
beautifully exist, in real life. And I doubt whether statuary or paint- 
ing have any more business to depart from that rule than poetry. Sup- 
pose that an epic poem, for the sake of hightcuing the charms and attrac- 
tions of its heroine, should describe her as walking about naked ! could 
it be en lured ? Nor any more do I believe that sculpture, without some 
urgent cause, should take a similar liberty. A draperied statue can 
answer all the ordinary purposes for a work of art. Witness Canova's 
Hebe ; and the Polymnia in the Louvre, an ancient Avork. And I doubt 
not that ancient art would have given us more examples of this, if the 



THE GREEK SLAVE. 423 

moral delicacy had been equal to the genius that inspired it. I trust 
that Christian refinement, breaking away from the trammels of the an- 
tique, will supply the deficiency." 

This seems reasonable, and tlie reasoning and the conclusions 
such as might be expected from an eminent clergyman. It ac- 
cords, we have no doubt, with the first impression of every one. 
To see the form of a young girl stand erect before one, without 
so much as the garment of a fig leaf to cover her, is shocking at 
the first impression. Every unused mind must be pained, and 
feel that it is wrong to be there. 

We expected, after such preliminary remarks, to find Dr. 
Dewey condemning Powers' statue of the Slave in the strongest 
terms of a Christian father's disapprobation. But no such thing. 
His condemnation is turned to high praise by just a change of 
names and scenes, — the real fact remaining unchanged, — and he 
surprises us thus : — 

" The Greek Slave is covered all over with sentiment, sheltered, pro- 
tected by it from every profane eye. Brocade, cloth of gold, could not 
be a more complete protection than the vesture of holiness in which she 
stands. For what docs she stand there .' To be sold — to be sold to a 
Turkish harem. A perilous position to be chosen by an artist of high 
and virtuous intent. A perilous point for the artist, being a good man, 
to compass. What is it? The highest point in all art. To make the 
spiritual reign over the corporeal ; to sink form in ideality. In this 
particular case, to make the appeal to the soul entirely control the ap- 
peal to sense ; to make the exposure of tliis beautiful creature foil the 
base intent for which it is made ; to create a loveliness such tliat it 
charms every eye, and yet that has no value for the slave-market, that 
has no more place there than if it were the loveliness of infancy ; nay, 
that repels, chills, disarms the taste that would buy. And how com- 
plete is the success ! I would fain assemble all the licentiousness in the 
world around this statue, to be instructed, rebuked, disarmed, converted 
to purity by it !" 

Bravo ! Now we may hope to have the morals of our city 
renovated, and the libertines of Broadway renewed to chastity by 
looking on this marble. That " vesture of holiness" must be 
quite transforming to men with whom virtue, modesty and inno- 
cence, are but a jest, — the things they joy to trample under foot. 
But we doubt very much whether the spectators generally perceive 
any such vesture. We certainly did not see it, but in truth we 
felt so much ashamed to be there at all, that we did not perhaps 
see all that Avas to be seen. We certainly felt most deeply that 
to have gone there except on a professional visit, — to have gone 
there to see that nude female, — would have been a degradation. 
According to a very favorable notice of the statue which appeared 



424 THE GREEK SLAVE. 

in the Tribune, this " vesture of holiness" is very seldom seen. 
Says the writer : — 

" We heard a gentleman yesterday expressing his delight in the high- 
est terms, after visiting the Slave. ' I never, in my life,' said he in the 
most emphatic manner, ' saw a piece of marble with such a beautiful 
polish.' 

" Some very nice people who visit the Slave can see nothing hut its 
nudeness ; others object to the revolving pedestal, while one critic could 
see nothing but the drapery on the wall. j\'ot one in a thousand ap- 
pears to have a perception of the marvelotis truth and purity with which 
the statue is clothed^ ov the characterization and majestic simplicity' of 
the design. This cannot be wondered at. There are but few who have 
an intuitive perception of the true objects of art." 

After such testimony in confirmation of our own non-observance, 
we cannot help thinking that the idea of Dr. Dewey is mere poe- 
try, with no fact at all for its foundation, and that his plan of 
purifying voluptuaries by gathering them around the statue, is 
also mere poetry ; and that the faithful preaching of the pure 
Gospel of Jesus Christ would be a much more hopeful remedy 
for their viciousness, if indeed there is hope for it from remedies 
provided by either God or man. 

There is another stage in this process of poetic holiness which 
has attracted our notice. It is the representation of Statuary by 
living persons. This is not a new thing altogether, for children 
sometimes play in this way ; but it is new in New York as a pub- 
lic exhibition, just as it is now brought forward. In the exhibi- 
tion wliich we witnessed, the first part was peiformed by men 
and women dressed in a tight knit silk, of the color of white mar- 
ble, the faces so prepared as to have the same appearance, and 
then more or less drapery was added, of thin muslin. It did not 
require a very powerful effbrt of imagination to apprehend the 
forms as real marble ; in fact, it reqmred some acquaintance with 
"art" to have any other impression. The Greek Slave was actu- 
all}' personified in this way, though not without the addition of a 
flounce around the loins, and even then some of the audience 
hissed, which seemed to us very foolish, for we were not there to 
be prudish. We perceived, by the talk around us, that the deli- 
cate drapery was the objection in part, for it was thought by 
some that this alone suggested the idea of immodesty, and but 
for it, the exhibition would have been unobjectionable. 

In the next scene the light marble dresses were exchanged for 
those of flesh-color ; tlie arms of the females bare, and their 
faces, hair, ttc, presented in real life. Here again there was 
delicate drapery of muslin, crimson taff'eta, (fcc. ; enough, at least, 
as in the case of the representation of the Greek Slave, to start 



THE GREEK SLAVE. 425 

the question of modesty. The male figures were dressed in a 
similar \Vci3' : but the oommunity are so accustomed to see the 
fiyures of men distinctly traced in their common dress, that no 
strong (jiierjr would be likely to arise about the propriety of tliis 
part of the show. Bat the thought has forced itself upon us, 
that having poetized naked art into the most impres.si\'e modesty, 
if we could poetize naked nature (in the personification of art) 
into the same holiness, we should then have gone round the ring, 
and should have a galvanic battery of electric virtue before \i'hich 
A'oluptuousness must indeed be transformed into purity, and all 
improper thoughts be forever expelled from the mind. If the 
votaries of art and morality should come to this conclusion with 
such unanimity that any money could be made by it, we have no 
doubt that tlie experiment could easily be tried. 

But it seems to us that a plain statement of the manner in 
which this Slave was got up must divest it of its virtue of hoh- 
ness in the minds of some people. It is called " The Greek 
Slave." But no Greek Slave had anything to do with its forma- . 
tion. That name is assumed to excuse what otherwise would be 
nothing but a burning insult to the city. But for this, the exhi- 
bition would be only pronouncing us a comrauniLy of baibarians. 
It seems to 'is that the way in which the thing is done will not be 
very satisfactory to the ladies, or even the gentlemen of our city, 
whose sensitiveness lias not been seared as consciences are some- 
times. We have" the account in the letter of a friend to the art- 
ist, who seems to be famihar with the whole matter, as follows : — 

•' The Process of the Sculptor. — Frora a paper in the Literary 
World, signed G. H. Calvert, we extract the following accovmt of the 
method in which statues are wrought from the block of marble: — 

" The conception being matured in the artist's mind, the first step in 
the process of giving form to it is to erect, on a firm pedestal, a skeleton 
of iron, whose hight, breadth and limbs ave determined by the t'iie and 
sliiipe of the proposed statue. In this case it would he about five feet 
high, with branches, first at the shoulders, running down forward tor the 
arms, then at the hips, to support a large mass of clay in the trunk, and 
thence divided in two for the legs. About this strong, simple frame is 
now roughly built, with wet clay, the prc-determincd image. Rapidly 
is this molded into an approximation to the human form; and when 
the trunk, head and limbs, have been definitely shaped, then begins the 
close labor of the mind. Tlie living models are summoned, and by their 
aid the surface is wrought to its last stage of finish. I say models, for 
to achieve adequately a high ideal, several arc needed. Nature rarely 
centers in one individual all her gifts of corporeal beauty. For the 
Eve. Powers had more than a score of models. 

"The modern Cliristian artist cannot be favored, as was the painter 
Zeuxis of old, to whom a Grecian city, that had ordered from him a pic- 
ture of Helen, sent a number of its clioicest maidens, that out of their 
various graces and beauties he might, as it were, extract one matchless 



426 THE GREEK SLAVE. 

form For the ' Slave,' the character Powers had established in Flor- 
cuce, for purity and uprightness, ohtaiucd for liim one model (who Avas 
not a professional sitter,") of such perfection of form as to furnish nearly 
all that he could derive from a model. With this breathing figure be- 
fore him, and through liis precise knowledge of the form and expression 
of every part of the human body, obtained from the study of nature and 
his own deep artistic intuitions, the clay under his hands gradually 
grew into life and assumed the elastic, vital look which no mere anato- 
mical knowledge or crall of hand can give, but which is imparted by the 
genial sympathy with nature's living forms in alliance with a warm 
sensibility to the beavitiful — iiualities whicli crown and render effectual 
the other less elevated endowments for art. Thus, by the most minute 
manual labor, directed by those high and refined mental gifts, the clay 
model of the 'Slave" was wrouglit out; and there the artist's work 
ended — the creation was complete. The processes whereby it was now 
to be transferred to marble, though of a delicate, difficult kind, and re- 
quiring labor and time, arc purely mechanical, and are performed, un- 
der the artist's direction, by uninspired hands. 

"■ In order that the soft clay image be transformed into a harder sub- 
stance, without suffering the slightest change in its surface, a mold is 
applied to it in the same way and with the same material as when a cast 
is taken of the living face or head, by means of semi-liquid plaster of 
Paris. The clay figure is entirely covered with this substance, from 
one to two or more inches thick, provision being made for taking off the 
arms, and for splitting the trunk after the plaster shall have hardened. 
The clay is then all taken out, the hollow mold is cleaned, and then re- 
filled with semi-liquid plaster of Paris. AVhen this, which now occu- 
pies entirely and minutely the place of the clay, has in its turn become 
hardened, the outside crust of plaster is broken from it, and then is laid 
bare an exact fac-simile of the original clay figure in hard, smooth plaster 
of Paris, capable of bearing the usage of tlie studio, and of receiving the 
many marks that are to guide the marble-cutters, whose work now 
begins. 

'• First comes the blocker-out, with his heavy mallet and coarse chisel, 
under whose rough blows the white block soon begins to grow into a 
rude likeness of humanity. Tiien, a finer workman, who loosens more 
of the folds that overlie the beaming image which the artist is bent on 
disclosing from the center of the niai-ble. And finally, the artist him- 
self, or, as in this case, a refined worker, schooled under the eye of 
Powers, gives the finishing touches, reproducing with unsurpassed ac- 
curacy, in the transparent, pure marble, every swell and indentation 
.•\nd minute curve, all the countless delicacies of detail, the which com- 
bined with and forming grand sweeping lines, characterize the original 
as molded in the ctay by the hand of Powers." 

Here then we have, in sober prose, the lineameuts of a Floren- 
tine girl, who had, by some means, been brought to consent to 
this revolting use of her person. The rest is made out witii the 
help of " professional sitters." There is no Greek slave at all in 
the case. That is all poetry, or rather humbug. Nor are we 
able to see the almost celestial genius which is attriinited to the 
sculptor. He lias a conception — then sends for a young girl 
from whom to cop// his conception. There is nothing that in tliis 
case he did not copy, e.\cept the attitude and the exj)ression of 



THE GREEK SLAVE. 427 

conntenance. And why should not the "one model" furnish liini 
witli both these, or at least tlu; last ; for hardly could that hold 
model have been so entirely lost to her natun; as not to blush 
and hanij;- her head somewhat in the style of a Grecik slave, if ever 
re;illy any Greek girl was so barbarously treated. And why 
could not the Florentine who used the chisel, who actually 
wrought out the statue, have copied from the original as easily as ' 
from the copy made by Powers ? Why not ? It was little else 
than a matter of convenience in working. But it is not our ob- 
ject to disparage Mr. Powers as a scul[)tor. Our object is, to say 
that there is no necessity for this nudity to display his skill. The 
display of genius is not there, but in the human countenance, 
which is quite as well, nay, much better represented when the 
person is covered. All the offensive exhibition is a mere copy, 
which we will guarantee the mechanic could have brought out 
just about as well without the help of Powers. Such statues as 
the " Greek Slave" must belong to the less exalted department of 
the art. There is little room for genius where so much is merely 
copied. 

What is there, then, to excuse or palliate this copy of a nude 
Florentine girl, set up in New York, and made endurable, nay, 
fashionable, by the authority of such men as Dr. Dewey ? In our 
huml)lc judgment, all the reprobation with which he speaks of 
nude works of art belongs to this ; and it required a courageous 
Green Mountain boy to set it up for exhibition in New York. 
We will not say what its attractions are. Ever}^ one can judge 
best by looking into his own feelings. As a matter of fact, we 
know that nude exhibitions of the human form, if endured 
by the public, are always sources of large profits to the ex- 
hibitors. We know that young ladies have visited the statue, 
and on entering the room have been shocked at the image 
before them. But they had been told that it was a great 
work of art, that it was right, nay, almost a duty, to see it ; 
and so they hushed the mniden fluttering in their hearts, and 
forced themselves to gaze and admire. We would help them, if 
possible, back to the repossession of their natures. The first re- 
sponse of their feelings was natural, was right, and much nearer 
holiness than anything about the statue. We will tell them for 
their help in the path of rectitude, that some of our best artists 
pronounce the whole thing " vulgar." If art says it is vulgar, 
certainly nature is of the same opinion. One foreign artist, of no 
peculiar sensitiveness, remarked about it, " I will tell you what it 
is. The ladies go there to look at the statue, and the gentlemen 
go to look at the ladies.'' We have yet to learn that anybody 
has really been excited with pity or mdignation, or with any of 



428 THE CHURCH. 

the feelings which would be excited by the reality of a young 
woman drao-ged out and exposed as the name of this statue repre- 
sents. There may have been many tears shed, but we have not 
heard of it. We think the first impression of well-regulated 
minds is, the desire that some one would throw a blanket over 
this nakedness and hide it. If nature is right, — if the artists are 
'rio-ht, — if this is a really barbaric, vulgar exhibition, opposed not 
only to Christian purity, but to civilized good taste, then let the 
delusion of holy vestments be dissipated, and the real vestments 
of decency be put in their place. 



[The following article was accidentally omitted at its proper 
place ; it shoul^ have been inserted before the article on page 
308.] 

THE CHURCH— WHERE IS IT? 

\_From the Journal of Commerce.'] 

There is a great deal of discussion in these days about the iden- 
tity of the Church. So many cry " Here she is," that none but 
a very steady man can avoid being confused. The Romanists 
declare that theirs is the Holy Catholic Church, out of which 
there is no salvation ; the Episcopalians, at least the Pusey por- 
tion of them, that they have a monopoly of the " covenant," so 
that if any find heaven out of their bosom, it must be through 
the " uncovenanted mercy" of God. Joe Smith sets up the 
same claim for his church of " Latter Day Saints ;" and various 
other denominations insist that though salvation may be secured 
out of their pale, yet they have certain special external matters 
which constitute the sine qua non of the " visible Church." 
"We have felt obliged, for our own sakes, to look into this matter, 
and as it is the topic now up for discussion, we trust our readers 
will excuse us for laying before them the result of our investiga- 
tion, though it may turn us aside for a moment from our usual 
routine. We have noticed that each Church, especially those 
most exclusive, boast greatly of their unity. Behold, says each, 
the unity of our Church ; and behold into how many sects all 
other pretenders are divided ; and they tell us of the particular 
talisman in their position which guarantees this unity. Yet 
while the boast is in their lips, we see them fciU asunder, and 
higli church and low church are immediately separated as by an 
impassable gulf. We feel obliged therefore not to determine in 
favor of any particular Church on account of its unity, for no 



THE CHURCH. 429 

Church possesses tliat quality as a perpetuity. The Romish 
CImrch has lost the great section which now composes the 
Greek Church, and that composing the Episcopal Church, not to 
speak of the sundering- by tlie Reformation; and still the fires of 
discord rumble in the midst of her. The Episcopal Church, too, 
seems about to be riven in the center ; the Kirk of Scotland has 
witnessed a grand secession ; and the Presbyterian Church in this 
country is broken into equal parts. We notice, too, that not- 
withstanding these mighty severings, the claim of unity is as 
confidently asserted as ever, for each part and parcel is sure to 
allege that it is the whole Church, showing that even the doctors 
disagree, and are as much at fault as other men ; only each cries 
" here she is." 

In searching for the true Church among the contending claims 
Avhich are presented, we have been surprised to observe, that the 
indispensable quality, the philosopher's stone of the true Church, 
is not anything which belongs to the people, but to the priests 
alone ; so that to belong to the true Church is to follow a 
certain set of priests, and to conform to their directions. With 
the Romanists, the Greeks, and the Episcopalians, it is the 
" apostolic succession" of the clergy ; and the same thing it is, if 
we understand the matter, which constitutes the e.xclusiveness of 
the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, so far as they 
are exclusive. Without the presence of an ordained priest in 
apostolic succession, there is with them no authorized Church. 
But as these (exclusives among Presbyterians and Congrega- 
tionalists) admit that salvation is to be had, and even by cove- 
nant, out of their churches, we have pursued our investigation 
of the matter chieHy with reference to the claims of the iliree 
great Episcopal churches of Rome, Greece and England. The 
proposition is, that the twelve apostles were an order of men con- 
stituting the nucleus of the Church, and possessed the exclusive 
power to administer its ordinances and admit to its privileges ; 
and that the power of the apostles has been transmitted by regu- 
lar succession, through the laying on of hands, from age to age, 
down to the present day ; so that the bishops now extant, are 
the veritable personification and identification, so far as office and 
power are concerned, of the twelve apostles. The Romanists 
claim that the Pope is the successor of Peter, the superior, as it 
is alleged, of the apostles ; and that the bishops are the succes- 
sors of the rest, though which apostle each bishop personifies re- 
spectively, it is not attempted to determine. This is the doctrine, 
if we understand it right. From the bishops the grace is trans- 
ferred to the priests, and from the priests to the people, though 
'the people never receive the power to pass it among each other. 



430 THE CHURCH. 

Merely to belong to the Church, is of no avail. The applicant 
must be admitted by the priest, and from him receive certain 
sacraments from time to time. It is upon these sacraments 
which the priest administers, that the prospect of eternal jrlory 
depends. Baptism is one of these sacraments. When adminis- 
tered by the consecrated hands of a priest, it implies the remis- 
sion of sins, the regeneration of the recipient, and his admission 
into the kingdom of heaven ; but any other man besides a priest 
might baptize his fellow-man a thousand times, nay, pour all the 
waters of the Mississippi upon him, it would not wash out a sin- 
gle stain. The sacraments, in fact, are all of no use, except 
when " rightly administered ;" but when so administered, they 
are effectual to eternal salvation. lu examining this plan of sav- 
ing sinners, it seemed to us of the utmost importance that every 
part of the history of this succession should be attested and 
brought home to each particular priest in the most minute and 
authentic form. If a mistake is made, it cannot be corrected. 
Heaven or hell hangs upon the verity of the succession. If the 
conveyance was imperfect at any point of the eighteen hundred 
years, the whole chain of communication is broken, and the poor 
sinner who trusted in the priest is lost forever. Upon this point 
it is indispensable that we should be certain — arsolutelv cer- 
tain. If a man only buys a lot of ground upon the surface of 
this transient world, he is careful to examine the title backward 
to the utmost record, and get a lawyer experienced in the busi- 
ness to lielp him. With every new sale a memorandum of these 
searches is handed over with the other papers. Yet after all 
this care, how many titles piove defective. If therefore the 
eternal joy or sorrow of an immortal being is to be placed upon 
the historical succession of the administering priest, Ave sliould 
expect every priest to come with his " searches" in his hand, 
carefully autlienticated, from the starting-point of the apostles to 
the day of administering the sacrament. This is rendered indis- 
pensable, inasmuch as this power of life and death, this gift of 
the Holy Ghost, as it is still called, this mysterious power of 
eternal import, produces no animal or mental sensation as it 
passes from one to another. The priest who receives it from 
the bishops does not feel, nor see, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell 
anything. There is not even the little sudden shock wliich elec- 
tricity produces Avhen it enters the system. The bishop per- 
ceived nothing, either in his mind or body, when the all-powerful 
grace was imparted to him, Tior does the sinner who comes to be 
transformed out of darkness iiUo light, perceive anytlung. From 
Pope to penitent there is no consciousness of receiving anything 
at the time, nor afterward can the individual possibly ascertiuu 



THE CHURCH. 431 

that he is in possession of anything. It is of no use to ask any 
one who has received this grace, but who has notliing to show 
for it, how or when he lost it, or where he had it last, for there 
is no sensation, no consciousness of anything at all, at any time. 
Neither the man himself nor those who are acquainted with him, 
can perceive that he has anything nevi or peculiar about him. 
He is no better in atfections, no wiser in intellect, no stronger in 
body. We have noticed that some boys just out of the theo- 
logical seminary, where they had learned the indispensableness 
of the gifts of ordination, and anxious to be able to preach with 
authority, having been ordained by Congregational pastors, and 
finding that they had acquired nothing palpable, have sought 
the desideratum from pi-esbyters in the Presbyterian Church. 
Still unconscious of the gift, they pass on to the bishop of the 
Episcopal Church, and thpnce, dissatisfied, to Rome, and yet, like 
other boys in chase of jack-o'-lanterns, they cannot clutch it, nor 
get nearer to it, by all their labor. 

As therefore there is no possibility, with the help of the most 
powerful microscope, or in any other way, of getting any present 
evidence of the existence of the grace, everything depends on 
history, which, as we said, in a case so momentous, should be 
authenticated at every step. But how surprised were we to find 
that there is not a scrap of any such authentication. When we 
looked for the parchment deed, and the seal of the notary-public 
or commissioner of deeds, or at least of the ordaining bisliops 
and councils, we could find nothing but the general deductions 
of history coming down from " the fathers." JVot a piipfif or 
bishop in any one of the three (/real Episcopal Churches is ai:so- 
LUTELY CERTAIN of his succcssion. When the sinner is about to 
pass into eternity, and the priest says to him, " Grasp this chain 
of succession ;" and the dying man exclaims, " Oh, Reverend Sir, 
are you certain that this chain, so very long that I can see only 
this one link of it, — are you certain that it was fast-hooked to 
the foundation of the apostles, and that in all its ten thousand 
links there is not one unsound ?" — the utmost that the priest can 
say, in this moment of infinite importance, is, "I ffuess it will 
hold you." 

As we cannot tell how long we may be occupied in searching 
for the Church, we lay before our readers ihe result of our ex- 
amination so far. It is unsatisfactory, we confess. We cannot 
l)ut hope that somewhere there is something more sure upon 
which we and our readers may trust our eternal interests. If we 
find anything by farther searches, we will publish what we find. 



432 BUSINESS PROSPECTS AND PRINCIPLES. 

BUSINESS PROSPECTS AND PRINCIPLES. 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, Fibruaiy 28, 1839.] 

All the prophecies of prosperity to our country are now re- 
ceiving- their fultilhnent. The past year lias been one of the best 
ever known for substantial prospeiily, and the current year is 
likely to be still better. There will be prosperity enough to 
make everybody rich ; and yet the surest way to get poor is to 
be in an inordinate hurrv to get rich. This has caused the down- 
fall of hundreds within the last few }-ears. Many who were rich, 
in scrambling for enormous gains, lost all, and would now be most 
happy and contented if tliey could get back one-tenth of the 
wealth tiiey once had in secure possession. Many a young m;ui 
who is now starting in business, will spend his life in torture and 
die poor, merely because he is bent on being a verj/ rich man. 
But why do you wish to be very rich ? Of what use could live 
millions be to you? Would you eat any more, or would what 
you eat taste any sweeter for such unwieldy wealth ? Could 
such a sum minister any more to your real happine.ss than half of 
it, or a quarter, or a tenth of it ? He is as rich as the richest 
wliose wants are all supplied. All the rest is mere care and vex- 
ation. 

In all the range of human folly, there is nothing more foolish 
than the desire to possess boundless wealth, which after all gives 
the possessor nothing but trouble and anxiety. There are some 
men so rich that there is scarcely a tire but they are losers bv it 
^— or a gale, but it costs them something. There is no thunder 
of distant war, but they tremble for their numerous stores ; no 
flood but carties oil' some of their bridges ; no prosperity in the 
land but it makes money plenty and brings down their rate of 
usance, and makes it more difficult to re-invest their constantly- 
returning funds. These men lead a dog's life merely because 
they are so lich. Few poor men who know not where to get a 
meal of victuals, suffer from anxiety so much as they. Yet thou- 
sands, in scrambling for this state of wretchedness, have plunged 
themselves into a sea of troubles, where they have been almost 
as miseiable as if their largest desires had been accomplished. 
Our advice to all our friends is. Do not set out to be enormously 
rich. Bound your desires by what you know is judicious Let 
your mind run on something more noble than mere money-makino-. 
Keep your business within your means. Do no more than you 
can manage with ease, then you will not be humbled to continual 
shinning. If you are prosperous, give away your money freely. 
One dollar given away will atlord you more real joy than the 
hoarding of ten dollars. On such principles as these, you will be 
likely always to have enough ; you will be hkely to manage your 



THE TRADE OF POUTICS. 433 

business easily, honorabl3% and happily. Your credit will be 
good, your heart at rest, and your tire-side happy. Wiiatever 
your occupation is, stick to it. Never turn off to specula- 
tions. Let all your acquaintance make their thousands daily, and 
be not yourself disturbed. Tiicy stand on slippery places, and 
when the storm of revul>i()n comes, nine out of ten of them will 
be swept away, while you remain unmoved. 



THE TRADE OF POLITICS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May 23, 1847.] 

A POOR trade, and yet the only one which some men have. It 
is a trade, moreover, inconsistent with the best success, if not 
with any success, in any other occupation. The merchant or 
mechanic who makes himself a partisan, and so occupies his mind 
with contriving and his hands with executing political projects, 
will almost certainly neglect his store or his shop. Even lawyers, 
whose business is perhaps more congenial with politics than that 
of an}' other set of men, are very apt to find that either politics 
or the bar must be relinquished. It has come about that a very 
considerable number of persons, abandoning other occupations, 
have taken up politics as a trade, and make this their chief reli- 
ance for a livelihood. To young persons there is much that is 
alluring in political scrambling, and the young often enter into the 
support of one j)arty or another with a degree of real patriotism 
far beyond that which is felt by their leaders. They hear it pro- 
claimed that " a crisis has arrived when the country is to be saved 
or lost," and in their simplicity and inexperience they suppose 
the whole country is meant, whereas, ten to one, the orator only 
means that his own particular interest in its honors and emolu- 
ments is to be saved or lost. These same young persons perhaps 
continue the game when they come to understand it better, for 
the sake of personal advantage, and great numbers of others 
enter upon it for the same reason. Others, again, are allured by 
the mere love of excitement. Some men devote themselves to 
politics deliberately, almost from the commencement of their ac- 
tivity in life ; but the greater number who adopt politics as a 
trade, do so, because, having from some of the causes mentioned, 
been drawn into it, they have pursued it until their other occupa- 
tions have deserted them, and as a matter of necessity they cast 
themselves for a living upon what seems the most ready re- 
source. 

Politics, however, is a poor trade. It is poor in its effect upon 
19 



434 THii: TRADE OF POLITICS. 

a man's purse, for it generally leaves it empty enough. The ex- 
citements of politics disqualify a man in a great measure for the 
careful husbandry of his pecuniary resources. A political Ufe is 
an expensive one, and the salaries, in our country at least, are too 
low to defray the expense. Many a man in the higher offices 
earns less than a good farmer, and as to the clerkships and other 
working ofl/ces, which are the objects of most violent scrambling, 
a great proportion of them yield less income than is paid by in- 
dividuals for services no more laborious. When to these things 
are added the losses which result from being turned out of office 
every now and then, it is not strange that politicians, as a class, 
have less money, less credit, and more duns, than any other class 
of honorable men. Politics is a poor business in its effects on the 
morals of a man who makes it his ti-ade. He must belong to a 
party, and the measures of a party are seldom such that a good 
conscience can approve them all ; but he must approve them all. 
He must go with the team over precipices and through bogs, and 
the moment he falters he finds himself down and trampled on. 
The bidding of the party, not the dictates of conscience, 
must he obey. The best rule which he can hope to live by is 
that *' the end justifies the means." After all its show of eclat, 
politics is a poor business as it respects the honors obtained by it. 
True, it is chiefly in politics that men aie elevated to what are 
called posts of honor. But the honor most of them attain is, to 
be most heartlessly huri-aed by one ])arty and most heartily hissed 
by the other. Now and then a man enjoys the real deference 
and cordial approbation of his countrymen, and perhaps the 
world. But such men are not often from the number of those 
who make politics the occupation of their lives. They are much 
oftener the men who, upon an emergency, are called forth from 
comparative retirement, and whose plans for the future are not such 
as to bend their own integrity or excite the jealousy of others. In- 
consistency of conduct in political men is always and perhaps 
rightfully esteemed dishonorable. Yet no man can long ride 
upon popular opinion and be consistent ; for the plain reason that 
public opinion is not consistent. We beg the pubhc pardon for 
speaking the truth in so unpopular a manner, but so it is. There 
are a gieat many subjects upon which the public mind is estab- 
lished, never perliaps to be changed ; but upon those which are 
not so settled, (and these are always the subjects of interest and 
debate with politicians,) the pubhc mind changes much oftener 
than the change is noticed. The same opinions which at one 
time a public man is obliged by the force of public opinion to 
advocate with all his j^owers, he is a few years afterward com- 
pelled by the same public to oppose with equal earnestness, and 



THE STATE. 435 

then, perhaps be scorned by the same public for his inconsistency, 
when he would most gladly be consistent if he dared. Take it 
all in all, there are hundreds of men who, by their enterprise, and 
talent, and probity in business, and liberality and piety of moral 
conduct, gain a more substantial honor among their fellow-men 
and die more heartily regretted, than falls to tlie lot of more than 
a very small number of politicians ; while thousands of politicians 
die absokitely and very justly despised. But poorest of all is the 
trade of politics in regard to the happiness of the man who pur- 
sues it; and this is the test of value for all things. Wealth, 
honor, and pleasure, are good for nothing, and no wise man will 
pursue them for their effect on himself, except as they promote 
his substantial happiness. But what is the politician's happiness ? 
If he is completely successful, his gratitication is hardly worthy 
to be called happiness. It is the gratification of ambition, which 
is the more insatiate the more it is indulged ; and it is the ma- 
licious gratification of triumphing over rivals — a feeling which 
partakes but little more of pleasure than of pain. But how many 
are never able to reach the fountain where these mixed waters 
may be tasted ! They live in vexation and anxiety, fearful of 
rivals, conscious that the waters of public opinion on which they 
walk are unstable as those of the ocean ; always scared at the 
visions of defeat, and not unfiequently ol)liged to feel the chagrin 
of the reality, and the anguish of beholding a rival go up to the 
pinnacle, while they sink down neglected. 

This is our sermon on the poor trade of politics. 



THE STATE: 

(a review of professor lewis' discourse at andover.) 

[From the Journal of Commerce, September 14, 1843.] 

Men have become so exceedingly learned in these days, that 
they know nothing at all. They are so fond of metaphysics, that 
the evidence of their senses is insipid. Nothing is certain but 
that which is deduced by a long course of sophistry ; and, as to 
prove the truth by metaphysics is a short and simple process, 
they are only satisfied when at the end of three hours they have 
mystified themselves into such utter darkness that a glow-bug 
fills them wilh ecstasy. The moon has no charms for them until 
they have proved that she is a cheese ; the rays of the sun have 
no warmth until they are proved to have their origin in cucum- 
bers. All that is, must be reasoned out of exi^^tence, and things 
most hideous that are not, reasoued into reality • and then they 



436 THE STATE. 

can smoke their pipes with composure. If such brain-sick learn- 
ing could have its way, common sense would be laughed out of 
society ; all that men know, they would be required to deny ; and 
all that is absurd, to believe. The age of infidel philosophy 
would be brought back, and the consummation of learning consist 
in knowing the only thing which would remain to be known, viz. : 
that all things are uncertain. 

We know not what could be a more thorough exemplification 
of tliis learned foolishness, than an American Professor proving 
before the assembled sages of New England, that man has no 
right to govern himself in society, that he has no riglits except as a 
religious being, that a state formed by the agreement of the people 
is no state at all, and that there is a mysterious divinity about 
that mystical thing called government, which makes usurpation, 
and that only, the ordination of God. " Tlie State may originate 
as the production of a wicked revolution or a just revolution," 
&c. ; in any way, in fact, except by the free assent and agreement 
of the people. Herod, Nero, the tj-rant of the day in the tumult 
of the French Revolution, Bonaparte, and Rosas : all these rule 
bj the authority of God ! " this is not the work of man ;" but 
these United States, with Washington at their head, " were not a 
State, but a mere mass of men — it was a usurpation — the State 
had committed suicide." This theory is not uncommon in our 
days, especially among the clergy. With these men notliing is 
so odious as radicalism ; and whatever opposes their will is ra- 
dicahsra. No doctrine is so odious as that kings are made for the 
people, and priests for the churches ; and no doctrine so whole- 
some as tliat the people are made for kings, and churches for 
their priests. The family is taken as the sample of government 
by divine right, and the chief blessing of that institution is its dis- 
cipline. Discipline is their panacea for the ills of humanity. It 
is, say they, ''only through the discipline of the fjiniily, the State, 
and the Church, that man can attain his true dignity." Birch is 
the only tree in all the forest which they admii-e ; but if by chance 
the little end of the switch falls to their share, no boy makes more 
outcry. They talk as if under an indistinct impression that the 
proper duty of a father is to flog the boys every night, as they 
go to bed. The sura of the whole matter is, that the State being 
a religious institution, and religion being the especial prerogative 
of the Church, and the Church, as well as the State, being a dis- 
ciplinary institution, for which however the State alone holds the 
power ; it is expedient for the furtherance of the ends of a reli- 
gious State and a disciplined Church, that the two should be united 
in mutual support of each other. The adulterous union of Church 
and State is the end of all this fine spinuing of metaphysics. 



THE STATE. 437 

There are some results of tlie doctrines under consideration, 
which seem to us Uttle short of absolute absurdities, even in meta- 
physics. One of the rules of logic, as well as physics, is, that a part 
cannot be more than the whole. Yet these metaphysicians hold tliat 
a civil compact, a government originated by the will of the whole 
people, is a fiction, but that any indivklunl may assume the gov- 
ernment, and it is then an institution of God. What a million 
of men have no right to do, any one of the million has the right 
to do, in opposition to all the rest; In fact, any number of indi- 
viduals may rise up in opposition to each other, and the conqueror 
of the whole can establish a divineh'-appointed State; but if the 
whole number rise in harmony and peace, and establish a gov- 
ernment, it is nothing. 

Again, according to the hypothesis of these men, every ex- 
isting government is of divine right, except those where the 
will of the people is the supreme law. Whoever governs to- 
day is the vicegerent of Jehovah ; and all rebellion against the 
government in existence, is rebellion against God. Yet if rebel- 
lion becomes so strong as to overthrow the government and'^es- 
tablish itself in power, the scepter of divine right passes instantly 
into its hands. According to this theory tlie government of 
Boyer was the government of God ; and none the less but per- 
haps the more so because he had violated the Constitution upon 
which he was elected, and usurped all power in his own hands. 
The rebellion of Riviere was a wicked rebellion in all its stages of 
feebleness ; but when it became so strong that Boyer fled, then 
the revolution became a righteous revolution, and Riviere the 
head of the State by divine right. "King Solomon the First," 
who has since headed a rebellion against the government of 
Riviere, will be a lawful king if he can get strength enough to 
rule ; if not, he will deserve to be executed as a rebel. Success 
is the test, and the signal of divine approbation. " ]\Iight makes 
rifht." No pope, or king, or tyrant robber of the dark ages, 
ever asked for anything better than this. But we have no such 
doctrine from the Word of God or from any of his dealings. 
With the Bible, success is no test of rectitude. Actions begun 
in sin are not consummated in righteousness, but if they are to be 
sanctioned in heaven they must be right from the start. The 
right of the strongest is one of the laws of Satan's kingdom, and 
by it he has kept his minions on the thrones of this world, and at 
the head of its pohtioal churches, in a great majority of cases, 
from ai''e to age, and we have no doubt that these merciless op- 
pressors of the human family, and persecutors of the real Church 
of Christ, have been as much abhorred in heaven as on earth, and 
instead of ever being owned as the vicegerents of Jehovah, will 



438 SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

find their place among the rebels against Hira. But how unwor- 
thy is the advocate of such opinions, to enjoy the privileges of 
American liberty ! How unworthy to enjoy the " inalienable 
rights" which cost so much blood, and which he so much de- 
spises and contemns ! The sophistry of his learning in its high- 
est efforts reaches only to the same conclusions with the most be- 
sotted iofnorance. 



SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
[From the Journal of Commerce.^ 

We have never seen any good reason for the opinion so often 
and so self-complacently expressed, that the people, especially 
those who are poorer than the speakers, are unfit to govern them- 
selves. There is a strange anogance of wisdom and patriotism 
among those who count themselves of the upper classes. They 
seem to forget that the vigor which has raised them so much, 
was nurtured and hardened in the lower ranks from which they 
started. They fail to appreciate the fact which they see con- 
stantly before them, that it is the energy existing at the bottom of 
society which raises it to the top, and the supineness accumulat- 
ing at the top which constantly sinks it to the bottom. 

Those who think themselves alone worthy to be trusted, we 
have seen quite as ready to appropriate the powers of government 
to their own private and dishonest advantage, as poor men, or 
even ignorant men. Education, intelligence, moral principle, can- 
not be too highly valued. Tliey are essential to the well-being 
of a State. When the supposed upper classes have enough of 
these to make them willing to do justice to those whom they con- 
sider below them, there will be more reason than has ever been 
long seen on earth as yet, for the opinion that these alone should 
rule. 

But there is a mighty power in the mere shape of institutions, 
to guide men right. The Irish are an ignorant and turbulent 
people, upon whom England has exhausted the wisdom and 
patriotism and Christianity of her upper classes, for long centu- 
ries, in vain. They grow worse instead of better, until Ireland is 
little else than a great bedhim, and hospital, and golgotha. Bt 
just change the position of an Irishman ; tmnsplant him from 
Ireland to America ; give him a share in the government, and 
treat him as a man, and he is a man. The process of regenera- 
tion goes on with astonishing rapidity ; and if the effect of his 
early training cannot be wholly eradicated from the emigrant, it 



PERSONAL RIGHTS. 439 

is from bis children. They are good citizens, stripped clean of 
the peculiar qualities which destroy the country of their ancestors. 
Right treatment, good institutions, regenerate the family from the 
desperate degradation to which ages of bad government had re- 
duced it. We have an intensely interesting exhibition of the 
same tiling in Liberia. Tlie negroes are set down as a sort of 
half-monkey race by some philantiiropists ; and by a vast majority 
of respectable people the negro slaves of the South are thought 
wholly incapable of self-government ; and so they are probably 
in this country. But look over to Liberia, and see these very 
slaves, the identical men and women who were slaves, not their 
children, struggling through the difficulties of a new and most 
arduous enterprise, with a degree of wisdom and steady energy 
which would do honor to any people. Let us not then any longer 
talk of the incapacity of man for self-government, especially with 
the Bible in his hands, that source of abundant wisdom. French- 
men, to be sure, have not many Bibles. But they have Bibles 
and Bible men enough to salt, and enlighten the land very essen- 
tially. They have done nobly in recovering their rights three 
times from the grasp of tyrants. Let them but know that the 
government is of them and for them, and we shall expect them to 
do honor to the free institutions of their choice. 

[These principles are then applied to the French Revolution 
of 1848.] 



PERSONAL EIGHTS. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, January 27, 1844.] 

The rights which men hold in their own persons are about all 
the divine rights which exist on earth. "Thou shalt lovet hy 
neighbor as thyself," is the command of God, and confers a right. 
" If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink," 
confers a right in the same way ; though not perhaps by the de- 
serving of the beneficiary. That God has made of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, places us upon 
one broad equality — giving to every man the same rights which 
are possessed by other men. Whatever rights we possess by 
virtue of our creation, with the faculties and i-esponsibihty which 
attach to us, we are entitled to exercise, without interruption, or 
interference, or censorship of our fellow men. If tbis is not so, 
then the right is not ours, but the neighbor's, who has a right 
to control us. As each man, for himself, is responsible to 
God for his opinions, the state of his affections, and the worship 



440 LIBERTY AND LICENTIOUSNESS. 

•vvliich he renders, he has a riglit in himself to form these opin- 
ions bv the examination of all the sources of information and 
Sjuidance which are naturally within his reach — and render a wor- 
ship and service which those opinions dictate. However errone- 
ous these opinions and this worship raa}- be, and hov,e\er painful 
to those around us, and although our friends and neighbors may 
have the right to expostulate with us in kindness, they have no 
right to take otTense at us, or injure us in any way ; for we are 
not infringing upon their rights — we are only exercising our own. 

Every man has a right to select his own occupation, his wife 
(with her consent), and his associates generally. For all this he 
is responsible to God ; (for he exercises the rights which God has 
given him,) but he is in no wise responsible to his fellow-men. 
If, in any of these selections, he is led into courses of life which 
violate his duties to other persons, then the)' have a right to com- 
plain ; but not for the mere selection. As a citizen every one has 
a right to join what political party he pleases, and vote for the 
rulers of his own choice ; for, in so doing, he only exercises the 
right which belongs to all citizens. 

The properly which any man has honestly acquired he has a 
right to keep or dispose of, as he pleases — pro\ ided he does not 
endanger the support of his family or his own maintenance. 

Ill fact, every man has a right, so far as his fellow-men are 
concerned, to believe and to do a great many wrong things, for 
which he may stand deservedly condemned befoie his Creator. 
Our various relations to each other, as neighboi-s, dealers, employ- 
ers or eniploved, make no change or abridgment in the absolute- 
ness of these rights. The man who assumes to r.ontrol us, or to 
quarrel with us, or injure us in any way, or even to frown upon 
us, because we do not exercise these rights in accordance with 
his opinions or his interest, or his wishes, invades the rights 
whicii God has given us, and is as truly guilty of a robbery as 
if he had violently taken away our money. 



LIBERTY AND LICENTIOUSNESS. 
[^lyom the Journal of Comnu^rce, October 31, 1835. j 

Every virtue, carried to excess, becomes a vice. And so 
much does vice wear the semblance of its kindred virtue, that it 
is often takt^i for it by the individual who practices it, and not 
untrequently by lus acquaintances. The miser calls himself pru- 
dent; the spendthrift thinks he is only generous; and the 
licentious abuser of his fellow-men sets himself up as the cham- 



MBERTY AND LICENTIOUSNESS. 441 

pion of liberty. Ameiioans have bcon so careful to shield real 
liberty from invasion, that in buildinor their wall around it they 
have inclosed almost all the quags of licentiousness. 

Here every man possesses, as an American citizen, the inalien- 
able rig-ht of swearing, lying, and slandering, provided only that 
he makes his declaration in such a general way as not to fasten 
on any one individual. For instance, he has a right to say of the 
Jackson men, or of the Whigs, or of the Presbyterians, or the 
Methodists, in general terms, that they are thieves, robbers, or 
anything else he pleases ; and if there are any considerable num- 
ber of persons wlio wish to promulgate the same opinions, they 
have a i-ight to meet in convention, and discuss and resolve as 
may best suit their malignant propensities. More than this ; they 
have a right to take such measures as will alarm those they hate, 
for their personal safety, or for the safety of their property, pro- 
vided only they do not sni/ what their real object is. Nay, more ; 
there are various ways in which an American citizen has a right 
to defraud his fellpw-citizens of their property, tiieir happiness, 
and even their lives. In sliort, every American citizen has a right 
to render himself a mischievous pest to all his fellow-citizens. 
We use the word " right " in its civil sense, it will be seen, mean- 
ing the liberty to do everything which the laws do not punish. 
While every American citizen possesses, in this sense, the right to 
do as we have described, it is obvious that all of us cannot really 
exercise all our rights. If we should, the result would be Bed- 
lam rather than society. It would be luiiversal confusion, and 
deprivation of all real and useful liberty. Plainly, somebody 
must forbear. If one portion of the community insist on exer- 
cising their rights thus licentiously, other portions must submit to 
have their rights restricted and abridged. It seems manv times 
to be forgotten that there are other laws besides those written in 
the statute-book, by which every good citizen ought to be bound 
and regulated ; such as the laws of God, the laws of good neigh- 
boihood, and the laws of gentlemanly courtesy. But it is no 
uncommon thing for those who break most barbarously all these 
last named codes, to cry themselves up as the champions of liber- 
ty and law, and cry out " persecution," if any vigorous measures 
are adopted to resist, or even to expose their mal-practices. 



19* 



442 SECTARIANISM. 

MORALS OF RULERS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, September 9, 1844.] 

We published some time ago the letter of a correspondent, 
setting forth the immoral character of several members of Con- 
gress, and complaining in very proper terms, that such men should 
be sent to dishonor the country in the halls of its legislation. 
There are a multitude of such complaints. But are those who 
complain always careful themselves not to vote for an immoral 
man ? The difficulty, if we understand it right, is, that good men 
pray for good rulers, and then vote for bad ones. They can see 
very well that some dissolute man from a distant part of the 
country ought never to have been intrusted with the affairs of 
government ; but when such a man is nominated by their own 
party, in their own district, do they withhold their votes ? Not 
one man in ten, if one in a hundred, will break aAvay from the im- 
pulses of party to follow the leadings of sound morality. They 
pray for rulers who "fear God and hate covetousness," and then 
vote for men who " neither fear God nor regard man." Such 
praying, and the scolding of such men about bad rulers, are 
equally important. If men who pray for good rulers are in earn- 
est when they pray, there is one way by which they can secure 
a favorable answer to their prayers. It is never to vote for any 
but good men. If men who pray would act in accordance with 
their prayers, and never vote for an imnfworal man, there would be 
no such men nominated. But so long as men sacrifice religion, 
morals, and everything else, at the shrine of party, so long virtue 
finds no support, and vice no reproof at the polls. Let every 
man do his own duty in this matter, or else cease to complain of 
bad men in office. 



SECTARIANISM. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, September 9, 1847.] 

We doubt whether sectarianism in general is any part at all of 
true Christianity. We suspect that Christianity is one thing, and 
sectarianism a separate thing ; no more the thing than the husk is 
the coi'n, nor at all as necessary to true religion as the worthless 
husk to the rich corn which it incloses. Sectarianism may be 
essential to the elevation of leading individuals, and but for it, 
many great systems would vanish into air at once ; but religion 
would be left, nevertheless. Christ promulgated Christianity ; 
men have promulgated sectarianism. There have been thou- 
sands of occasions when this has been practically illustrated. 



TRINITY CIIURCJI CROSS. 443 

.Cliristian missionaries of various denominations have often found, 
when they have met together, that they were all one. Men in 
great peril together have often, by their mutual danger, been 
stripped of their sectarianism, yet with all their religion left, have 
called aloud and together for help from the mighty God who 
alone could save them. It is in rich churches, beneath tall spires, 
and in irreligious associations, that the weeds of sectarianism grow 
rife ; but in poverty and sadness there is often none of it, 
though much more true piety. In fact, if sectarianism were not 
constantly fomented by interested individuals, we should not be 
certain that the great mass of Christians would not directly fall 
into one great brotherhood. We are not so much troubled about 
sectarianism as some people are. We are not certain that, small 
as the portion of true piety may be among all the denominations 
in these days, sectarianism is not a good thing. It sets up a ri- 
valry of opposition where the motive of benevolence is too feeble, 
and so creates Christian action and usefulness, when but for it 
there would be nothing but dry bones. Still, we cannot think 
that the true vitality of religion is in sectarianism. While we do 
not think that Christian union on a common basis is, as thino-g 
now stand, to be established by a world's convention, yet we do 
think it a possibility, and even a probability at some time. Pray 
what will give vitality to the saints in heaven ? Will it be Epis- 
copacy, or Congregationalism, or Methodism ? 



TRINITY CHURCH CROSS. 
\_Fyom the Journal of Commerce, July 9, 1845.] 

The cross has at last been placed on the top of the noble 
steeple of Trinity Church. As a mere matter of architecture, it 
is rather, by contrast, calculated to add to the dignity of the 
structur^below. Whether in this respect it is for the better or 
the worse, there will probably be a diversity of tastes. If the 
cross is intended as a sign to designate the denomination to whom 
the building belongs, it will be likely to be misunderstood, unless, 
indeed, Trinity intends to announce her return in due submission 
to the bosom of Holy Mother Church of Rome, which we 
suppose is not the case. If the cross is erected under the notion 
that it adds anything to the sanctity of the place, that this cross 
will be an object of adoration, or veneration even, the design is 
distinctly idolatrous, and in thorough rejection of Him who died 
on Calvary upon a cross, as a sacrifice in the place of sinners. It 
is no matter into what shape the smith hammers the metal when 



444 CONFIRMATION. 

it is warmed on the coals, whether it be a Jupiter, a St. Paul, or 
a cross ; whether it is the image of anything in heatlien my- 
thology or scripture history, makes no difference. If the image 
is intended to excite pious emotion tow.ird itself, or anything 
which dwells in it or about it, the intention is to reject the true 
God and set up another. Truth and falsehood are often so near 
together, that it takes the nicest care to distinguish between them ; 
yet they are always really and totally opposed to each other, and 
their results are liable to be separated by a gulf which no man can 
pass. It is no uncommon thing, in fact, for men to believe that 
the)' are doing God service, when they are doing just that which 
he most abhors. But there is no need, we presume, for such re- 
marks upon the Trinity cross, though they flow naturally from 
the contemplation of the manner in which, by the use of such 
images, the Christian Church, winch it cost so much blood to es- 
tablish, was led back to an idolatry more dark and dreadful than 
that which had preceded it; so that the whole work of the 
Christian dispensation had in reality to be commenced anew, and to 
find its most deadly and cruel opponent in the nominal Church, 
with the cross elevated upon every steeple. 



CONFIRMATION. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, Jaiiuary 4, 1848.] 

We received yesterday a notice that our property in Maiden 
Lane had been assessed $3,00, with information that the said 
assessment had been " confirmed ;" and that payment would be 
received "in money current at the several banks in this city." 
We have to say mos*^ decidedly that we shall not pay. First, be- 
cause we cannot determine certainly what the amount is, as it is 
only stated in figures. Secondly, because we have no faith in mere 
confirmation. If the thing be unsound in itself, whetli^r it be 
man, beast, or whatever else, mere confirmation, by whatever 
hands performed, is a mere ceremony, coming to nothing; there- 
fore this matter of the Maiden Lane, being altogether unsound, 
hypocritical, rotten, and of unseemly odor, from the beginning, 
confirmation cannot cure its defects. And lastly,' because we do 
not own any property iu Maiden Lane. 



CHURCH PEWS PROFANENESS. 445 

CHURCH PEWS. 

{From the Journal of Commerce, May 18, 1843 ] 

" Church Pews. — In thn practice of politely bowing strangers out 
of a pew where there if? still room to spare, is there not a Lick of even 
worldly courtesy ? ' Have 3'oii not. mistaken the pew, sir .'" bbmiUy said 
one of these Sunday Chesterfields, as with emphatic gracefulness he 
opened the door- ' I beg: pardon,' replied the stranger, rising to go out, 
' I fear I have. I mistook it for a Christian's.' " — A''eio York American. 

This must be a very popular paragraph with tliose Sunday 
marauders who, whether they pay for a pew anywheie or not, 
are perfectly at home in the best seat they can find. These per- 
sons have, many of them, arrived at so high a state of Christian 
attainment, as to perceive that the only person in all the world 
Avho has no claim to a pew in church, is the person who pays for 
it. They, therefore, take possession alone, or in squads, of the 
best pews they can find, where they seat themselves in Christian 
perfection, and if a contribution-box should chance to pass along, 
they turn up their Christian noses at it, and report the people as 
extremely impolite. For the owner of the pew to stand with his 
family at the door and make a bow, signifying that he would be 
glad to use what is his own, is enough to get him the character 
of being no Christian and no gentleman. We know at least one 
church where intrusions of this sort are carried on with so high a 
hand, that the trustees are obliged to be less courteous than they 
would like to be, or give up the establishment altogether. We 
have sometimes seen persons high in honor and in Christian 
character, when they go to a strange church, take a back seat, 
or ask the sexton to show them to a seat, or walk down the aisle 
with an air which betokens their wishes, and this course of con- 
duct has seemed to us to breathe quite as much the air of Chris- 
tianity and politeness as the conduct of those persons who, when 
they go abroad to church, go early, take possession of the best 
pew they can find, and then look with self-complacent indig- 
nation at the parishioner who dares to ask for a seat in his own 
pew. 



PROFANENESS. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, August 25, 1846.] 

I HOPE the day will come when a grand effort will be made to 
purify our language from piofaneness ; or, at least, when the cap- 
tains of steamboats, and others who entertain throngs of travel- 
ers, will remember that among their guests there are almost 



446 PROFANENESS. 

always some who love and revere the name of God and Jesus 
Christ, and whose feelings are wounded when these names are 
taken in vain. I shall not dispute the right of any man (so far 
as society is concerned) to defy high Heaven with oaths and 
curses, and swear when God only, hears, or when he is surround- 
ed by others like himself. I can only say of him that nothing is 
more vulgfar in lancruawe, nothing else more degrading, nothing 
else so profitlessly wicked. But let him settle that with the God 
who has told him beforehand that He will " not hold him guilt- 
less." What I claim is that my ears shall not be assailed by 
profanity. It is not only sin against God, but against the Eng- 
lish language, and against common civility, for any man in a pro- 
miscuous society to draw his adjectives fi-om the vocabulary of 
Billingsgate, which some of the company have never learned, 
and cannot hear but with pain. Especially is this violation of 
private rights disreputable and ungentlemanly in the officers of 
steamboats and the keepers of hotels, who by their invitations to 
strangers to come under their charge, do virtually pledge them- 
selves that the traveler's personal rights shall not by them be 
invaded, but protected and secured. These remarks are not 
without reason in what I have endured at the West ; and yet I 
would not be understood as characterizing the Western people as 
sinners above all men in this respect. There is too mucli pro- 
faneness, a great deal, yet there are thousands who abhor an 
oath, and on the whole I did not hear more of this vulgar crimi- 
nality than I had reason to expect. The most shocking profanity 
to which I was compelled to listen was at La Porte, Indiana. 
But it was at the close of election day, and the men whose hid- 
eous oaths resounded through the tavern were not, I trust, any 
fair representation of the people of the place. There were, how- 
ever, a number of men whose language was almost all profane, 
and who seemed distressed that they were obliged to intersperse 
a few words of real English in order to express any idea at all. 
Some whose ideas were all drowned, made out pretty well with 
no English at all. I went to bed almost horrified by the dread- 
ful depravity wliich I had witnessed, and when at a late hour I 
was awakened by an old man passing through my chamber to 
his own bed, cursing and damning along, in low grumbles to 
himself, it required but little dreaming to suppose him a lost 
fiend, vainly seeking rest in the darkness, and that I had lain 
down in the purlieus of the infernal regions, instead of on the 
border of " The Door Prairie." 

A similar train of thought has come over me respecting the 
smokers, though of course of a much milder character. I do not 
dispute the right to smoke, so far as I am concerned, or society ; 



D O C T O U S OF DIVINITY. 44T 

but I do dispute any man's ritfht to smoke in my face in the 
places of promiscuous resort. I do not say that it is degrading 
or ungentleraanly to smoke good cigars, or bad ones, or a pipe. 
But I do say, that the man who comes upon the promenade of a 
steamer, "abaft the shaft," where ladies and gentlemen are as- 
sembled, and there sits himself down at the windward of them, 
to smoke and spit, is a violator of their individual rights, is un- 
civil, and for the time being a blackguard, however much of a 
gentleman he may be elsewhere and on other occasions. If 
anything could make me believe that tobacco-smoking was in its 
very nature uncivilizing and degrading, it would be the exhibi- 
tions of incivilit}^ such as I have described, which it induces men 
to be guilty of, who, in every other respect, seem to be courteous 
and gentlemanly. When I went into the bar-rooms or the 
" smoking-rooms" of the West, I should have thought myself 
quite uncivil to complain of those who were smoking. But I 
thought there was reason for complaint, when almost on no oc- 
casion could I get a seat in the fresh air, but some smoker would 
contrive to get further to windward than myself and make me 
breathe out of his mouth. Ladies, though their sweet presence 
protects the gentlemen who accompany them from some incon- 
veniences, and even introduces them to some choicer accommoda- 
tions — even ladies are no protection against the smokers. No 
decorum, no beaut}^ no necessity can propitiate the smoker, and 
remonstrance is only the precursor of double injury. 



D.D.'s. 

[Froni the Journal of Commerce, August 25, 1845.] 

We are glad to see that our colleges are forbearing this year, 
more than ever before, in the distribution of " Semi-Lunar Far- 
dels." The great number of manufactories of Doctors of Divin- 
ity, and the curious characters who sometimes get them, with 
the other objections, have brought the title into absolute disgrace. 
It ranks now very much with " Calling " in the militia ; that is, 
a good deal below Mr. It is a singular accident, if such it was, 
that the only thing in our country which has any resemblance to 
a title of nobility should have been bestowed upon the ministers 
of a religion whose honor is all in its humility, and whose author 
forbade them even to be called Rabbi. The degree of LL.D. is, 
to be sure, in a few cases, conferred on literary men and civilians, 
but not with the design of giving a title. Even this had better 
be omitted. But to set about decorating the parties with D.D.'s, 



448 ELOQUENCE. 

because they stand in certain relations to the officers of the col- 
lege, or to rich donors, or even have money of tlieir own to give, 
or have rendered some service to a party, or need to have a ques- 
tionable character white-washed, or have reached a certain age, 
is not very reputable to anybody, and causes the same thing, 
when conferred on real merit, to be rather a derogation than an 
honor. One gentleman, we noticed, was mentioned as the oldest 
living graduate of the college, and he was doctorated, not with- 
out other merits, we dare say, besides his extreme age. Yet the 
act was likely to be misunderstood rather as one of pity than 
respect. We hope the hundred institutions of our country, and 
more too, called colleges, and a few of them entitled to the name, 
will cease this nonsense and mischief of trying to inflate the pride 
of ministers, by conferring an old, unmeaning, and superan- 
nuated title upon them. Let them have the privilege, like other 
American citizens, of being called Mr., and earning their own 
rank in society. 



SEMI-LUNAR FARDELS. 

IFrom the Journal of Commerce, August C, 1847.] 

There is a prospect of an uncommonly large yield this sea- 
son. One college has turned out five pair. As there are over 
one hundred colleges in the country, they would, at the same 
rate, yield an aggregate of over five hundred pair in a single year. 
For the economy of labor, we would suggest the propriety of at 
once dubbing all the clergymen in the country, " D.D.," without 
distinction of sect. This would satisfy all, and leave no room for 
suspicion of favoritism. And what a glorious country we should 
be, with twenty-five thousand or thirty thousand Doctors of Di- 
vinity among us. 



ELOQUENCE. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, March 11, 1847.] 

TriE newspaper urchins know how to practice it. They put 
on an earnestness which surpasses anything on the forum. They 
run through the streets as if they would break their necks, crying 
"Extra Herald and Tri — bune, got the great war in Mexico." 
You would think the fellows were chased by Rancheros, and like 
the Abolitionists of old times, had taken their lives in their hands. 



MORAL COURAGE. 449 

They seem in a perfect agony witli tlie friorlitful news they carry. 
Now and then they get up an excitement meeting, and combine 
their powers. One afternoon last week a squad of them came 
rushing down Wall street, and brought up on the broad pave- 
ment opposite our office. There were twenty of them, perhaps, 
all shouting at the top of their voices, running about amontr each 
other, and up and down, — much as you will see a swarm of bees 
when hovering in the air. The trick succeeded admirably. Many 
of the passers-by bought the extras, which the boys, in the a"-ony 
of their excitement, had scarce time to deliver. In about fifteen 
minutes the show was ovav, and nothing left but the solemn tone 
of a single voice, crying over and over, despairingly, " Evening 
Expr-a-a-ass, fourth edition, — got the battle in Mexico — only tew 
cents." This melancholy dole held on until the dusky nio-ht, 
when whip-poor-will begins his more sprightly monotony, and the 
night-hawks dive down through the air and cry p-o-o-o to day's 
ag.talions. Occasionally the boys kill General Taylor, or capture 
him. Sometimes they knock olT Santa Anna's other lee, or put 
him some other way in limbo. But whoever buys their extras 
now-a-days — whatever the " edi-shin " may be — is sure to be 
tak<!n in. As the matter goes now, the heads of southi»rn news 
are telegraphed every night from Washington, and published in 
the morning papers, so that all the great wars in Mexico, of all 
edi-shins, are little else than repetitions of the morning news. 



MORAL COURAGE. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, April 19, 1843.] 

This is a choice commodity, and is shared largely by almost 
every individual, in his own estimation, while he is apt to con- 
sider it sadly deficient in others. There is a feeling very preva- 
lent in the community, that editors, especially, are deficient in this 
estimable characteristic. Men wonder that editors are not ready 
to run a tilt against every wind-mill within their reach : also to 
ride every hobby, however spavined it may be, or however 
broken the ground. If there are ditches or stone-walls to be 
lea|)ed, or pitfalls to be crossed, the owner of the aforesaid fia7ii' 
iiud ap[)lies to the editor, as a matter of course, to make the ex- 
periment; keeping his own precious self out of danger. If the 
editor breaks his neck in the attempt, the owner still remains un- 
known ; but if he gets safe over, perchance the mysterious agent 
who has used him as a catspaw may come forwaid and share the 
honors of victory. Take a case, by way of illustration. A day 



450 "MUNinCENT BEQUEST." 

or two since, we received an anonymous communication, to which 
was appended the following postscript : 

" P.S. And now, dear sirs, while we esteem you as possessing more 
moral courage than any other editors of the secular press in the Union, 
we question whether you have enough to give the above a place in your 
useful and wide-spread journal. We hope to be disappointed, however, 
by seeing it appear : for wickedness must be rebuked, or we perish." 

All this is well fitted to stimulate us to the conflict. It ap- 
plauds our moral courage — of which we claim no more than our 
share ; it also rebukes our lack of that ingredient ; yet gives us an 
opportunity to show that, after all, we are brave enough to do as 
he bids us. Now we have a proposition to make to this admirer 
of moral courage. It is this : If he will append to the commu- 
nication his own real name and place of residence, and if it turns 
out that he is a man of any character and responsibility, we will 
give his communication an insertion in our columns. Our names 
are well known to the public; let Alithea (Aletheia it should be, 
if he means to be the personification of Truth) reveal himself 
also : and then we shall stand on equal ground. But perhaps the 
communication is not such that Alithea would be willing to be 
known as the author of it: he would like to see it in print, if he 
could skulk behind the fence, and leave the responsibility to be 
borne by others. Let us say to him, in all kindness, that this is 
not moral courage. We desire to have only so much of that in- 
gredient, in the exercise of our professional duties, as will embolden 
us to print and say what is wise and expedient, all things con- 
sidered. Therefore, the fear of being accounted deficient in 
moral courage will not impel us to insert Alithea's communica- 
tion, except on the condition above-named ; for there are other 
qualities of mind, — a sound discretion for instance, — which we 
deem as valuable as moral courage. 



" MUNIFICENT BEQUEST." 
[From the Journal of Commerce, August 13, 1839.] 

We do not intend to quarrel with these words, (which we so 
often meet with in the public prints,) nor their meaning. And 
yet we cannot help thinking, that to part with one's money at 
death is hardly so thorough a proof of genuine benevolence, 
as to give it away before the cold grip unclenches his fist so that 
he cannot possibly hold on any longer. Any man will let go of 
his bag of money when he cannot possibly hold on any longer. 



TOKENS OF RESPECT. 451 

But after all, there is a great deal of propriety, and some real love 
of doing good no doubt, many times, in making a generous dis- 
position of a large estate by will : and there may be often good 
reasons for keeping, while one lives, more property than it is ex- 
pedient to leave to personal heirs. But he who gives away his 
surplus money while he lives, is wisest, for two reasons. He can 
be more sure that it is well expended if he superintends that 
matter himself; and when money is thoroughly expended for 
some good end, there is no farther trouble in taking care of the 
money. After a man has acquired as much property as he can 
possibly have any use for, all his other acquisitions but increase 
his cares. What rest can a man have who owns fifty stores and 
houses in this city, and stock in half the banks and insurance 
companies ? Certainly, if he holds his property with the love of 
money which is so strong in the bosoms of most rich men, he 
must always be harassed with the apprehension of loss. If he 
would give three-fourths of his property away, if he could find 
any good object on which to bestow it, he would then breathe 
easily and sleep soundly. But we do not expect to persuade 
men of ga-eat wealth to adopt such simple wisdom as this. If we 
can, by such views, do anything to moderate the desires of young 
men, we shall do something also to insure them real plenty and 
happiness all their lives. It is the inordinate desire of enormous 
wealth that could only be a torment if attained, which causes 
almost all the bankruptcies among our trading class. 



TOKENS OF RESPECT. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, JVovember 11, 1839.] 

We often see it stated that on the opening of the court it was 
announced that some lawyer practicing at that bar had died, 
whereupon, as a token of respect, the court immediately ad- 
journed. Legislative assemblies, we are often told do the same, as 
a token of lespect to deceased members of their bodies. We are 
not able to see how this adjourning is a token of respect. If the 
individuals who adjourn would retire to their chambers, there to 
think upon their lives and the end of them, it might show that 
the death of a comrade had made a suitable impression. But we 
do not understand that this is considered necessary. The time is 
spent in ways not particularly appropriate, and often in mere idle- 
ness or something worse. What respect there can be to the mem- 
ory of an industrious man in spending a day of idleness, or to 
the memory of a good man in spending a day of carousing or 



452 POSTHUMOUS PRAISE. 

sporting, we do not understand. We can understand how all the 
laborers on the Croton Water Works might think the same course 
very appropriate, if only their Avagcs were to go on, and in fact 
how an\^ set of men who get as much by idleness as by labor, 
should think themselves very soberly called upon to throw up 
work whenever there is a death, a birth, or a marriage. This 
mode of expressing sympathy, however, while it is very con- 
venient for some, is very inconvenient for others. A judge may 
adjourn and suit himself, but it is not so with panels of jurors 
and scores of witnesses. And now it strikes us that possibly this 
is the secret of the thing. Herod, when about to die, know- 
ing that the event would cause universal joy, determined to make 
sorrow in another way, and so undertook to have a great number 
of the best men of the nation massacred at the same instant. 
Some grief is no doubt awakened in the bosoms of the parties of 
wliom we have spoken, by the useless disorder of their affairs and 
waste of their time, when perhaps but for tliis, the dead lawyer 
would hardly have drawn a sigh from any bosom. If this is not 
it, we should feel much obliged if the next man who moves ad- 
journment on such an occasion, would be good enough to tell us 
in his speech how the adjournment is a token of respect. In our 
judgment, the best token of respect which can be paid to de- 
parted merit is for every one to labor naoi'e diligently and earn- 
estly in the performance of his duty. 



POSTHUMOUS PRAISE. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, September 19, 1836.] 

It was a practice of the ancient Egyptians to pronounce hon- 
estly and impartially on the conduct of their princes after they 
were dead, however much they might have been eulogized by 
flatterers during their lives. It was a worthy and useful prac- 
tice, for men are frequently more anxious to leave a sj^ood name 
behind them, when they are dead, than to rear it while they live. 
The practice among us is the reverse of that of the Egyptians. 
If a man occupies a political statioii, the way is to abuse him 
while he lives, as the worst of all bad fellows, but the moment 
he is dead, whether he were really a bad or a good man, all 
hands turn to praising him ; and especially they take care to 
make him a saint in religion and send him straight to heaven. 
A plenty of newspaper certificates are put into his hand, that lie 
is a lit subject for that better world, under the impression that 
they will have the same good influence as a Pope's certificate of 



i 



THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 453 

absolution. A man lives in the indulgence of unbridled licen- 
tiousness until his iieart is iiardened to the commission of the 
most ti(;ndish cruelties to accomplish his designs, and when his 
head is grown gray in crime, just before the last fiickering of the 
" lingering taper," he wipes his mouth, calls a priest, has a 
prayer offered to the God whom he has ever before offend(Ml, 
wraps himself up in a hypocrite's cloak, and "wings his way." 

That will do for political religion, and is very comforting for 
those who are determined to take no safer course for themselves. 
Nor shall we enter into any theological discussion about the mat- 
ter. We speak only in the name of reason, of the public morals, 
and the public good. It is rank injustice to all these, to Avhite- 
wash the corpses of tlie most odious men, and perfume them for 
heaven without warrant. It hardens others to expect that they 
shall die in honor, however they may have lived in disgrace, and 
to increase the number of their crimes, expecting retribution nei- 
ther here nor hereafter. 



THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 

IFrom the Journal of Commerce, May 28, 1838.] 

Some ladies have distinguished themselves by declaiming 
against the oppression of women, which they say exists in our 
Christian land. They say women are kept in a condition of in- 
ff-riority to men, and that of right they ought to be equal. We 
have been thinking the matter over, and have come to the con- 
clusion that the wrong is quite the other way ; and that if rights 
ought to be divided half and half, we would be for a new divi- 
sion. Not on the ground upon Avhich Miss Grimke goes, that 
men are not women, or permitted to engage in women's occupa- 
tions, but because, when the simple question of superiority is at 
issue, the men always have to give up. If ladies and gentlemen 
meet on the side-walk, who has to turn out ? If there are not 
seats enough for all the company, who has to stand up ? When 
there is danger to face, who must go forward ? If there is curi- 
osity to gratify, who goes behind ? If there is too much com- 
pany for the first table, who eats at the second ? Who has al- 
ways the right hand and the most respectable position ? We 
could mention a hundred other cases, in which, on the simple 
question of right, everytliing is yielded to the women. But 
there are many cases in which the condition of men is still worse. 
For instance, if on any public occasion a pew at church, or a seat 
anywhere, be occupied by men ever so respectable or aged, a 



454 ST. pat*rick's society. 

smirky little beauty trips along and presents herself at the top of 
the seat, and they must all jump up and clear out as if they had 
been shot. Especially ought it to be noticed, that when matri- 
monial negotiations are to be made, the whole burden of perform- 
ing the delicate and often very embarrassing part of making pro- 
posals is thrown upon the men, while the women sit and say no, 
no, no, as long as they like, and never say yes until they have 
a mind to. Mrs. Angelina Grimke Weld may show a catalogue 
of equal grievances. 



ST. PATRICK'S SOCIETY. 

IFrom the Journal of Commerce, March 17, 1846.] 

Sure, our Irish fellow- citizens, who have come of their own 
free-will to the land of St. Jonathan, are to have a grand dinner 
to-day, in honor of St. Patrick and their own appetites, at the 
City Hotel. We wish every son of an Irish mother could sit 
down and rest himself, and eat of the good things. St. Patrick, 
you know, was the saint that preached a great sermon to the 
snakes and frogs, and persuaded them all to quit swate Ireland, 
except one great old snake, and the saint had to " come Paddy 
over him." St. Patrick had a big iron chest, and he made a bet 
with the snake that he could not get into the chest. The snake, 
to win the bet, got in all but his head, which he kept out from 
some suspicion tliat he could not altogether expel from his 
bosom, whereupon the saint flung' down the huge cover of the 
chest, and the snake, to save his head, was obliged to jerk it in. 
But the spring-lock held fast, and St. Patrick immediately flung 
the iron chest, snake and all, into the Lake of Killarney, where it 
lies at the bottom now. About the truth of this legend, there 
never was the least doubt ; and now, if any Irishman should iver 
commit a bit o' disiption, he can point to the patron saint, and 
the good he did in that same way. St. Patjick, we hope, will 
preside at this dinner to-day, and bless all the hearty cheer of it, 
just the same as he would if it had been in old Cork, to be sure. 
At any rate, this bringing of Patrick and Jonathan and all the 
national saints thegither, in the social way, has a great effect in 
promoting good nature among them. 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 455 

FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 
IFrom the Journal of Commerce, April 25, 1839.] 

Columns of newspapers and volumes of books have been 
written on this subject, and to very good purpose in many cases. 
But after all, the secret is more in a nut-shell than is commonly 
supposed. The greatest secret in the whole matter consists in 
being a truly good parent. Your children see you in your do- 
mestic carelessness. They know the real character of their pa- 
rents better than persons do who live in other houses, and who 
only see you when you are on your guard. If they find their 
parents unkind to each other, or failing in any way to maintain in 
private the characters which they assume in public, their respect 
is gone — their confidence broken down. If your child has ever 
known you to be guilty of telling a lie, how can you govern him ? 
If he knows you have cheated a neighbor, how can you govern 
him ? If he .«ees you in public, putting on the air and manner, 
and claiming to be a Christian, while in his close watchings he 
sees that you are full of pride, and vanity, and bitter feelings, and 
ambition, and covetousness ; that all your religion goes off at the 
corners of the streets, and none of it in your bed-chamber ; how 
can you govern your child ? 

First, then, be a good man, and a good father. 

Secondly, govern yo2<r6r(/ always, and without the least degree 
of unfair charity toward yourself. The laws you enact for your 
children, never break yourself. If you break out with bad [)as- 
sion, and excuse yourself, you must certainly be as generous to 
your children, and excuse them for the same fault in the same 
way. How can you govern your children if you cannot govern 
yourself ? 

Thirdly, let all your requirements be just and generous ; never 
given for your own good, but always for tlie good of your chil- 
dren. 

Fourthly, spare no pains — give yourself no rest in body or 
mind — while anything remains to be done which can enlighten 
the understandings or sweeten the affections of your children. 

Fifthly, let your orders be wisely given, and then maintained 
at all hazards and at all times. Never in one instance, allow your 
word to fail. Trust chiefly to kindness, and })ersuasion, and rea- 
soning, tMid use punishment of any sort as little as possible. But 
let it be always understood that obedience, full and entire, must 
be yielded to your directions, and that you will, though with 
great considerateness and affection, never slacken your hand, nor 
relax your demands until such obedience is rendejed. 

Mind these rules, and \vith very little severity in any way, you 



456 POLITICS AND RELIGION. 

will seldom fail of securing all the benefits of a reciprocally af- 
fectionate and well-ordered family. 



POLITICS AND RELIGION. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, March 12, 1835.] 

• Our brethren of the type, in this city, are in great trouble lest 
the Legislature of Massachusetts should refuse to repair the 
damages occasioned by the Charlestown riots. An extract from 
one of them we have already published. Another writes as fol- 
lows : 

" We did expect from the known liberality and justice of the Boston 
people, that they would have rebuilt the convent by subscription ; by a 
capitation tax ; by an appeal to the honor, to the justice, to the manhood of 
the community ; by a sense of respect due to the outraged laws ; bj' the 
ordinances of civilization; by the usage, and feeling, and chivalry, of a 
brave and gallant people; we looked to see these dtliolic women rein- 
stated iu tlieir dwelling, with all honor and repcr.tance — reinstated 
in their rights and in their property — the criminals punished, and the 
laws triumphant. 

" This not having been done by the people, in their individual capaci- 
ty, does not lessen the obligations of the State to do them justice ; and 
we hope, for their own honor — for the opinion of the world — for tlie high 
character and reputation the State enjoys — that the claim of these peo- 
ple will be allowed; no matter whether it is called a debt or a gra- 
tuity." 

We hear nothing from these compassionate editors about the 
New York riots. Tiieir •e.vpansive benevolence overleaps such 
narrow limits. The poor blacks, whose houses were torn down, 
or rifled of their contents, — there is no propriety in indemnifying 
them from the public treasury, or by subscription, or by a capita- 
tion tax ; for, with a few e.xceptions, they are not permitted to vote ; 
and if they were, they would have too much discernment not to 
see through the flimsy artifice by which it is sought to cajole our 
" adopted fellow-citizens." Neither is there any propriety in 
providing indemnity from the public treasury, or by subscription, 
or by a capitation tax, for the damage done to Presbyterian, 
Episcopal, or Methodist churches, for the obvious reason that 
neither of those denominations would be gulled by such an act of 
"justice," to vote for the party making the appropriation. Be- 
sides, the party in this State which controls the parse-strings is 
the antipodes of that which holds the reins of power in Massa- 
chusetts, and of course an opposite effect might be produced. 

It is with reluctance that we allude to this subject, in such a 



EXPEDIENT AND ABSTRACT. 457 

connection, at all. But if political editors are determined to mix 
up Church and State for the accomplishment of their purposes ; 
if, for the sake of getting votes, they will afford countenance and 
encouragement to one sect, at the expense of the rest, they may 
rest assured we will oppose and expose them, to whichever party 
they may belong. We are willing, and desire, that the Catholics 
should have an equal chance wiih all other denominations; but 
if, at the approach of every election, political papers are to turn 
aside from the proper sphere of their labors to puff the Catholic 
religion for the sake of obtaining votes, thej' need not wonder if 
countervailing measures are adopted. We hold that politics and 
religion should be kept distinct. They cannot be united for any 
good purpose, and we entreat those who have influence in such 
matters, not to make the attempt. If, however, religion must be 
dragged into our political contests, we say let it be frankly 
avowed. Let the people know what the question before them is, 
and they will decide accordingly. 



EXPEDIENT AND ABSTRACT. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, May 18, 1836.] 

These are a couple of words which certain modern casuists 
have taken great pains to run down. The pronunciation of either 
of them instantly causes the lips of these men to curl and their 
noses to turn up at the end. And yet both these words have 
long occupied well-known places in the English language, and 
have been words of great use and usefulness. As to the first, it 
means fit, proper, or that which is right and judicious; in fact, it 
means duty, upon a comprehensive view of all the circumstances 
in the case. It is common for logicians when discussing a par- 
ticular measure, to inquire, first, whether it is lawful, and second, 
whether it is expedient. The Apostle Paul made the same divi- 
sion when he said all things were lawful to him, but all things 
were not expedient ; and announced tiiat he made the latter the 
rule of his conduct. The reason of this is obvious. Expediency 
always includes lawfulne^^s, and is a rule of duty which includes 
all other rales. What do men propose to gain by quaiivling 
with this good word and trying to blacken and spoil it ? What 
good do they propose to accomplish by their labors? Is it that 
if they could succeed, they might shape their course by the rule 
of inexpediency ? That is the opposite of expediency, and if we 
might judge from many of their projects, inexpediency is their 
guide. 

20 



458 BETTING ON ELECTIONS. 

Abstract, — -what is the matter with that ? -vyhom ha? it wrong'ed, 
that war should be made upon it ? It is often used to express 
the idea of a subject in its primitive qualities, and divested of 
those incidental circumstances wliich may attach to it, but are 
not its essential ingredients. For instance, if one of these phi- 
losophers were required to Uike a dose of tartar emetic, that in 
the abstract might be veiy undesirable. But if he had a fever in 
his blood, (as sometimes such men have,) and the medicine was 
likely to remove it, why, then, the conclusion would be reversed, 
and to take it might be highly expedient. For ourselves we in- 
tend to vise these persecuted words just as we have been accus- 
tomt^d to do ; and if we can prevent it, not to sutt'er them to be 
either killed or belied into a bad character. They are good and 
honorable words. If thev were expiinocd from the dictionary, 
there would be two ideas, which we shouM often have, but could 
not express ; certainly not so well as we can now. Those who 
do not like the words need not use them. But we venture to 
say, that however many persons may try to destroy them, they 
are so safely intrenched within the massy tomes of Dr. Webster, 
that they will bid defiance to all their assailants. 



BETTING OX ELECTIONS. 
[F?o>n the Journal of Commerce, October 1, 1834.] 

We do not introduce this subject because we think anything 
we can say will do much good. There is too much interest in 
gambling of all sorts to be checked by anything but stern prin- 
ciple. It may not be amiss, however, to remind our fellow-citi- 
zens that betting is a violation of both moral and civil law : and 
that those who boast of being supporters of the laws should not 
wantonlv transgress them. But betting upon elections is violat- 
ing the law under circumstances which aggravate the offense 
beyond the mere sin of getting possession of another's property 
without right. It is putting the high francliise of freemen at the 
stake of the gambler. It is a poHtical sacrilege. Besides this, it 
throws into our contest.s with one another, at the polls, a double 
spirit of violence, when without this addition, the mass of passion 
would be quite sutHciently great. Every man who bets on an 
election encourages, perhaps begins, in himself and in his antago- 
nist, a practice which often has led. and may again lead, to ruin. 
If h«' loses, he parts with his money without anv equivalent. If 
he wins, he comes into the j>osse^ssion of property without right, 
his title to which can never be made i^ood, and lor which he 



USURY LAWS. 459 

must owe the righttul owner to the day of his death : and even 
that e\ent will not cancel the obligation. This may be thought 
a mighty serious view of a little betting. But it is no more seri- 
ous than true. No man's sentiments are right, and no man is 
safe who cannot always say with truth, " I never bet." 



USURY LAWS. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, July 31, 1834.] 

Professor Dew, of William and Mary College, Virginia, has 
published a well-written " Essay on the Interests of Money and 
the Policy of Laws against Usury." He exliibits the ill effect of 
such laws upon the pecuniary interests of lenders and borrowers, 
and upon the public morals. lie takes the ground which every 
writer must take, who would have the reputation of possessing 
the least particle of good sense. The superiority of the princi- 
ples of free trade in regard to money, is indeed now, we be- 
lieve, universally admitted. Yet such is the sluggishness of 
legislation, and the fear of oflending the prejudices of a few per- 
sons who live in the dark, that usury laws are still almost 
everywhere maintained. Even in the enlightened State of Mas- 
siichusetts it was with difficulty that some modification was 
secured last winter. In Holland there are no usury laws, and 
there the rate of interest is lower than anywhere else in the 
world. 

Those who suffer most severely, under usury laws, are the 
money borrowers ; and especially tliose in bad credit. This is 
quite just ; for such laws have their origin in the efforts of such 
persons unfairly to curtail the profits of those Avith whom they 
deal. But instead of accomplishing their object, they subject 
themselves to the payment of the penalties which they desire to 
inflict on others: for in addition to the rate of interest which 
they would otherwise be compelled to pay, they must pay the 
lender a premium to guarantee him against injury from the vio- 
lation of the laws. 

Usury laws do much to increase the severity of money pres- 
sures. When money is scarce, the price of it rises, as does the 
price of everything else under the same circumstances. High 
prices were instituted as part of the system, for the purpose of draw- 
ing in supplies more rapidly. When money is high, there is gen- 
erally a want of confidence, which in some degree prevents its 
being brought freely into market as other commodities are when 
they are scarce. Usury laws increase the evil, for they keep 



460 QUACKERY. 

many sums of money back, either because the owners -will not 
break the laws of the country, however bad, or because they 
will not, for anj' premium, put their capital at the risk of legal 
forfeiture. Usury laws operate to aggravate the mischief they 
are intended to cure, and. in every way do mischief and nothing 
else. 



QUACKERY. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, J\'ovember 22, 1834.] 

There is nothing about which it is more easy to gull the pub- 
lic than the remedies for the decay of nature. Men trust their 
lives in hands where they would not think a shilling safe, and 
are induced to do so by the very arguments which, applied to 
money, would destroy their confidence entirely. If a man were 
to come here from a distant country and advertise in all the pa- 
pers that he could so conduct all the branches of business as to 
insure unheard-of profits, would the people flock to him with their 
money ? They would understand that such pretensions were in 
themselves proof of imposture. But if a stranger advertises that 
he will cure all diseases with one remedy, and declares most 
roundly that if he were universal doctor, death would be driven 
from the world, he will probably have plenty of patients who 
commit health and life to his quackery. The doctor in Connect- 
icut, some twenty years ago, who cured consumption in all its 
stages with rain-water drops, was an innocent fellow enough, 
especially as he charged nothing for his drops, and only made 
each patient buy a book full of certificates of his wonderful cures. 
But most quacks do not deal in rain-water. Their nostrums 
either kill or cure, and generally it is the former. Yet they de- 
clare they never lost a patient. There have been some such 
quacks in cholera practice, who have asserted roundly that all 
their patients recovered, when in fact corpses were strewed all 
alono- their path, — many of them killed without the help of 
cholera at all. The more safe impositions of quackery are prac- 
ticed upon the cure of diseases of j^'^r^^ of the system, — such as 
the eyes, the ears, the teeth, &c. One declares he can make a 
bald head spjout with all the freshness of youth, and cause ring- 
lets to flow from an old poll as luxuriantly as they do upon the 
head of a mermaid. He has plenty of certificates of success, 
and thousands pay freely a dollar, or whatever the price may be, 
for a vial of the precious fructifying liquid, and apply it from day 
to day to their unvegetating pates, and wait, and feel, and look in 



MOBS. 461 

the glass, to catch the first germinations of new locks, — but Avait 
in vain. They find at last that the only way to fulfil the promise 
of the (juack, is to buy a " scratch" of the barber. Deafness 
can be cured infallibly by filling the ears with " the Imperial 
never-failing, sound -restoring sonoiific," poured warm upon the 
tympanum. Hundreds try it, and all hear less than ever; 
though a few, imagining that they hear noises which were never 
made, give certificates of wonderful cures. But the teeth, they 
are the glory of quackery. No one, so far as we know, has ever 
promised to make new teeth grow in old gums. But it would 
be a good thing : crowds would buy " the royal tooth-restoring 
drops." As it is, teeth are pulled out witliout giving pain, and 
old stumps filled up so as to be as good as new, and new teeth 
put in of imperishable materials, Avhich last perhaps a year. All 
their Avork is but mischief, for whoever deposits anything but 
gold in his teeth, makes a grand mistake. However, it is useless 
to write against quacks. They are the standing subjects of ridi- 
cule and contempt, and yet so fond are people of being fooled 
with, that quacks Avill always find plenty of customers, and so 
will lausfh at moralists and satirists. 



MOBS. 
[From the Journal of Coinmerce, JVovember 19, 1835.]' 

To everything there is a season, and mobs have had theirs. 
It Avas a long time since the sway of the laws had been inter- 
rupted, and while the public mind was highly e.xcited on other 
subjects, and in security on this, the peace and order of society 
were repeatedly violated. The potentates of Europe and all the 
enemies of free institutions chuckled in their sleeves, and some of 
our own citizens thought the time had come in which the great 
question of the supremacy of the laws or of mob violence, was to 
be determined. They who understand best the workings of 
public opinion, however, had never any trouble on this head. 
Tiiere is no more danger that Americans will surrender the reign 
of laws under which they lie down securely at night and go 
about their avocations by day, than that they will go back to the 
condition of colonies to Great Britain. This community will no 
more tolerate mobs, than any other method of tiampling the 
laws under foot. That there never will be any popular risings 
hereafter, we cannot say. If men will insist on saying and 
doing the most irritating things, the baser sort may, perhaps, 
sometimes determine that they will not bear it, and may throw 



462 A STRANGE BIRD MIRACLES. 

addled eggs and break windows, hiss, and all that. It is well 
for those wlio deal with the public to bear these propensities in 
mind, and not pour out anathemas just exactly as they might if 
every man whom they abuse, was a man of sound good sense. 
Yet we propliesy that the time is at hand when the " liberty of 
speech and the press" will not be able to provoke any harder re- 
turn than words, and Aviien those who court persecution will find 
no little dithculty in winning its laurels. This community will 
never submit to mobs but on a surprise, — neither will they give up 
one iota of their liberty of speech or the press, or make any laws 
upon the subject, however much that liberty may be abused. 
We reason down error here, and by that resistless weapon will 
all violence of every sort be subdued. For ourselves we feel 
perfectly secure of the reign of the law^s, liberty and truth, sup- 
ported by an enlightened public opinion. 



A STRANGE BIRD. 
[From the Journal of Commerce, April 25, 1835.]] 

Thk Catholic Miscellany has had the impudence to adopt as 
its device the American Eagle with the shield and stripes, — hold- 
ing in the right talon a cross, and in the other a Popish chalice. 
This desecration of our noble bird, in making him, while he 
stands forth as the emblem of our political Union, to hold out the 
emblems of a state religion, and that the most oppressive which 
the world ever saw, will be little relished by the native-born sons 
of America. Our eagle wears no miter, and holds no chalice 
filled with the bitter dregs of imposture, pollution and tyranny. 
Let the Catholics remove our shield and stripes, and they may 
then hold up their eagle as they like. He will then be an Aus- 
trian bird, and the emblems he holds will set forth the iron gov- 
ernment they represent. But the stripes and the chalice — not 
yet — no, nor ever. 



MIRACLES. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, February 16, 1843.] 

A GENTLEMAN who had the privilege of listening to a serraoa 
by the Right Rev. Bishop Hughes last Sabbath morning, informs 
us that the scope of the prelate's discourse went to show that 
the Church possessed all the powers now which it had in the 



EXCITEMENT. 463 

time of the apostles ; and that the bisliops, who are the verita- 
ble successors of the apostles, have the same power of workinor 
miracles now, which the Apostles possessed, if only they should 
please to use it. We hope if the riglit reverend gentleman 
should ever feel in the mood of workinLf a miracle, he will not 
turn his attention toward us ; though if he should, and will but 
give us notice, we will let him see that we can work as many 
miracles as he. We can make the blood of St. Januarius liquefy 
as quick as any priest of tiie most regular ordination ; and as to 
living without eating, we can beat the Addolarata of the Tyrol, 
for we will leave it to fifty men in Wall street whether they have 
seen us eat anything these ten years. 



EXCITEMENT. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, August 12, 1835.] 

There are a great manj^ persons who seem to live on mental 
excitement, as some others do on that wliich is animal. These 
persons, by long indulgence, acquire an appetite for excitement 
so strong, that it cannot be satisfied with peaceful scenes. They 
are therefore driven to the indulgence of bad passions. With 
malice, revenge, envy, and other things of similar character, they 
are able to mix a portion sufficiently intoxicating to strain up 
their relaxed nerves and fit them for action. Some such persons 
live in an endless ebriety of exasperation. They cannot be happy 
unless they are mad, and have not heart for action until they 
have drunk down and again thrown oft" plentiful quantities of 
curses upon their fellow-men in general, and upon a great many 
of them in particular. Such persons love to meet together to 
drink from a common cup mingled by their common contiibu- 
tions of bile, and as this is not sufficient, they will hire others 
and pay them liberally to help them keep up their rage. Their 
choice of books, and newspapers, and periodicals, is ever directed 
to that which will sustain in them the most malicious excitement. 
A publication, which recommends prudence, conciliation, and 
good nature, is as tasteless to them as cold water to a drunkard 
of fourscore. If you touch one of these persons with a pole, you 
instantly feel a shock like that communicated by the electric 
fluid. You can never hope to be agreeable to them unless you 
have just lost a debt or had your corns trod on. If they should 
once become really good-natured, and a flash of genuine and 
broad benevolence should pass over them, there would be great 
reason to fear that the functions of life would cease. 



464 THE MAIL NULLIFICATION. 

[This little jeu-d'esprit has some historical interest in these 
days of railroads and telegraphs.] 

THE MAIL. 
[From the Journal of Comnunrcc, March 16, 1833.] 

One of our cotemporaries stated yesterday, on what he said 
was good authority, that the Postmaster- General was about to 
establish a daily mail between Washington and New York. 
Such a thing would be a desideratum, especially if it should get 
here every dliy. We believe there is a mail now which starts 
from Washington almost every day. The fact is, perhaps, that 
the Postmaster- General is about to establish an extra mail to run 
from Washington to Portland, and perform the extraordinary ser- 
vice of keeping to a fixed time, and that a reasonable one. The 
irregular operations will, perhaps, remain to be performed on the 
old plan : for, to bring the whole system up to business-like 
accuracy, and manage it as an individual would manage his own 
aifairs, would be quite too much. We must, therefore, have one 
mail line to go right, and another to go lorong. If a dispatch 
mail should be established, we hope it will be on the plan of car- 
rying the mail. To drive coaches from one end of the country 
to the other Avithout the news on board, might be a matter of 
great exactness, but would accomplish little good. The Post- 
master-General's double horse express between Philadelphia and 
New York, dashed through the mud in good style, but the diffi- 
culty was, it did not bring the news ! 



SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION— COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO. 
\From the Journal of Commerce, .ipril 1, 1833.] 

We wonder if South Carolina is bigger than all the rest of the 
woiid ? We should think so from the vaporing of the Nul- 
litiers — and that their 17,000 undisciplined volunteers were more 
tlian a match for all the armies of Europe. No doubt the whole 
United States has been terrified into submission by seeing a few 
refuse muskets and old ship cannon bought of the Yankees 
at "i aiikee prices, and shipped to Carolina in Yankee vessels, 
to be thrown aside, as the Yankees well knew they would 
be. without ever being used except to shoot partridges with, or 
to make a big noise at a Fourth-of-Julv celebration. The large 
bird, whose watchword we have placed at the beginning of this 
paragraph, is always most valiant after being exposed to danger, 
and none the less so because he owes his escape to the magna- 



"our country, right or wrong." 465 

mmity of his foos. We will not compare the NuUifiers exactly 
with a rooster, nor the United States with a rooster's foe. But 
it is ridiculous to hear a single State talk of frightening the other 
twenty-three States into terms. No, it was a principle very dif- 
ferent from fear, which led to the liberal concessions of Mr. 
Clay's bill ; a principle as different as light is from darkness. 
The question was, between submitting to the disgrace which 
South Carolina threatened to inflict upon the nation, or avoiding 
that disgrace by making concessions which many supposed she 
had no right to claim. The twenty-three States preferred 
the latter. So, if twenty-four men were in a ship with powder 
on board, and one of them should take it into his head to 
play the bully, and proclaim on his oath that he would blow her 
up " sky high, sir," unless they would convert her into a brig, 
they might perhaps come to his terms, — or at least consent that 
after a certain date she siiould be converted into a brig, rather 
than run the hazard of taking a trip to the moon in com- 
pany with their troublesome shipmate. There would be only 
one other course they could pursue with any safety, viz., to 
put the fellow in irons, and feed him on bread and water, 
till he leained to behave himself. But this would be very 
unpleasant, and the reputation of the thing would be bad. It 
would be better to avoid open collision if possible, even though it 
were quite as easy to put the man in irons, as to convert the ship 
into a brig. Such a man might pride himself very much 
on " restoring peace" to the ship's company, seeing it depended 
upon him ana his " high courage" to say whether they should 
have peace or not. In other words, he alone was the disturber 
of the peace, and of course when he ceased to disturb it, he re- 
stored it to the ship's company. 



"OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG." 
\From the Journal of Commerce, March 12, 1839.] 

Such a sentiment, in the mouth of a warrior by profession, 
like Decatur, might be tolerated, or even applauded. But when 
contemplated as a part of a system of ethics, its deformities be- 
gin to appear. We do not like the notion of doing wrong, or 
supporting wrong done by others, let the circumstances be what 
they may. We think there is a nobler sentiment of patriotism 
than this, and that in truth this sentiment of " our countiy right 
or wrong" grows hard by the other of " charity begins at home." 
The same sentiment is applied in a good many cases, and in none 
20* 



466 "our country, right or wrong." 

more frequently than in the matter of political partisanship. 
" Our party, right or wrong," is the test to which most political 
leaders subject their partisans, and if on such occasions they 
were to put down all the thoughts of their hearts, they would 
add, " whether our country sinks or swims." Next comes our 
State against all other States ; Philadelphia against New York ; 
our town against all other towns ; and- myself against every body, 
right or wrong ; for " Charity begins at homey To be sure if 
our countr}^ or our State, or any community to which we belong, 
becomes engaged in controversy with another community, we 
owe certain duties as citizens, which must be performed, and 
caution ought to be observed in condemning the measures of our 
own government. But to proclaim a cause to be good and just 
when we know it bad and unjust, merely because it is the cause 
of our town, party, or State, or nation, is far enough from being a 
virtue. Patriots of this sort, we should expect would stick to 
their patriotism just as long as they supposed it to be for their 
individual interest, and no longer. Real patriots, who may be 
trusted, are men of genuine honesty, who love the truth, and men 
of expanded benevolence also, who love all men wherever they 
may live. 

This thought suggests another objection which lies against 
the doctrine at the head of this article, and which is zealously 
shouted by so many men. It is, that genuine patriotism is 
founded on benevolence, or the love of all men, and so is a prin- 
ciple which would revolt from doing wrong to any nation or any 
individual. And there is reason in this. Why should a citizen of 
these United States, in the present emergency, go heedlessly with' 
his own country against Great Britain, any more now, than he 
would if Great Britain were a part of this Union? Our interests 
are nearly as much identified now, as they possibly could be. What 
if the Atlantic rolls between us ? The same thing is true of Missis- 
sippi. But New Brunswick is only separated from us by a line 
which is imaginary and occupies no space. Why should we hate 
men, or go against them light or wrong, merely because they live 
on the other side of a degree of longitude ? What is that degree 
of longitude, more than another degree of longitude ? What if 
our neighbor is associated in civility with another commimity — is 
there anything hateful in that ? How miserable is that benevo- 
lence which covers only one's little self, or town, or nation, com- 
pared with that which reaches to every fellow-being wherever 
he lives, and whatever may be his circumstances ! The latter 
principle is not only incomparably more noble than the former, 
but, in fact, is an elevated virtue, while the former is in general a 
low and selfish vice. There is one government to which all men 



LIBERTY. 467 

belong. That government is generous, and kind, and boundless 
in its benevolence. He who bounds his affections by some little 
spot of earth, needs to be taught what are the first principles of 
moral greatness. Whomsoever we make war upon, they are our 
brethren. Read the Bible, and see if it is not so. You will find 
there the constitution of confederated v/orlds : and you will learn 
theie to say, "my country — I love her, and I will never consent 
to her doing wrong." Then you will be a patriot who may be 
trusted. 



LIBERTY. 

{From the Journal of Commerce, May 21, 1839.] 

In almost all men there is a strong love of personal liberty, and 
along with it a desire to encroach on the liberty of others. The 
lo/e of power, like the love of gain, is a common passion. There 
are few associations formed, either political, religious, literary, or 
of any other kind, in which there will not directly be found some 
men who will seek to control the rest: and this disposition will 
be carried out with a vigilance and perseverance which are quite 
surprising. If you see three chimney-sweeps together, you will 
almost certainly see the stoutest assuming to govern the rest ; 
and so it is whether the community be high or low, black or 
white, dirty or clean. Even the animals have the same love of 
superiority ; for you will hardly see a flock of dogs in the street 
(New Yorkers can try this experiment any day) but you will ob- 
serve a fight, or at least a snarl, among the stoutest of them, to 
determine who shall be the greatest. Under such circumstances, 
every man who would be truly free must watch his liberty as he 
does his cash. He is the only real and genuine lover of liberty, 
wlio loves it for its own sake ; who not only loves to be free him- 
self, but loves to see others so ; and who would never be at ease 
while he knew that he exercised an undue control over the freedom 
of any other person. Many men think they love liberty, and talk 
largely in its praise, — perhaps become the head demagogues of a 
grog-shop or a town, who will after all show themselves the most 
unsparing taskmasters whenever they get a chance. Even the 
gentler sex are not entirely free from this wide-pervading passion. 
The lad}'' superiors of nunneries, and a thousand other places, 
make this fact felt upon their cringing inferiors. We take it that 
the reason why we are freer than the nations a thousand years 
ago, is not that no men or women, of tyrant disposition, can be 
found now-a-days, nor that there has beea in fact much differ 



468 TYRAXXY OF LIBERTY. 

ence in this respect in different ages, but only that the great 
mass of the people assert iheir rights with greater vigor than 
formerly. Americans must not suppose that either in religion or 
politics, it will be sufficient that their fathers declared themselves 
free, and all men equal, and planted the tree of liberty deep in 
their soil, and made it grow with surpassing beauty. Uidess it 
is watched, it will die, and stand as xmseemly as a decayed Loni- 
baidv poplar. Let every one look to his own case, and see whe- 
thei- he deals with those in all his associations who allow the fun- 
damental American principles that all men are equal, and that 
sovereignty is with the people and nowhere else ; and lot him 
not wait until he feels the screws upon his own thumbs before he 
considers himself oppressed, but whenever and wherever those 
principles of popular control are denied, which are the only safe- 
guards of liberty. 



TYRANNY OF LIBERTY. 

[From the Journal of Commerce, February 8, 1840.] 

Many Europeans have been scandahzed of late years to find 
that out of the liberty of the United States had grown a tyranny 
more fearful than any that is exercised by the absolute sove- 
reigns of Europe or Asia. It is the tyranny of the majority, or 
of public opinion. M. de Tocqueville, in his discussions about 
the democracy of the United States, dwells much on this. He 
has been much and deservedly p'-aised, for he seems to have 
a great deal of intelligence and independent honesty of thought : 
yet he seldom gets right, exactlv. He measures and guages our 
institutions by rods and scales made with great niceness upon the 
most approved principles of the science of government, but 
the real thing of liberty, the secret of what it is, he evidently 
never got hold of. He could see that liberty constituted in 
some respects a stronger government than absolutism, and he 
thought that strength was tyranny. He says the tyranny of 
public opinion in the United States goes beyond that of the 
Inquisition in Spain ; for that the Inquisition was never able, 
with all its terrors, wholly to suppress the circulation of intidel 
books ; whereas public opinion in the United States prevents any 
man from wishing to even iJrlnt them. This was as well as 
a man who had studied government as a science, could explain 
tlie mystery which he saw. But in truth, what he saw was tht 
peifeciion of liberty. The tortures of the Inquisition could never 
extinguish the curiosit}' of the public to see and know the 
contents of the books for which the suffering was endured. Be- 



TYRANNY OF LIBERTY. 469 

sides, tliose tortures always excited sympathy for the sufferers; 
and ahhough the Popish priest might be in ihe outset right, the 
manner in wiiich he n^.aintained the truth, put him in tiie wronor. 
The proce.-s tlierefore fed opposition to itseU', and po-sessed 
in itself the elements of its own defeat. It continually ex- 
cited the sympathy and the curiosity of the people, and when- 
ever they could, they would indulge these feelings. But in the 
United Stales heretics of all sorts are now treated fairly. They, 
therefore, get no sympathy. Their cause is put upon its intiin- 
sic merits. Then it is discussed freelv. Every one reads and 
hears as much as he pleases, and so makes up his opinion. 
Wlien this process of investigation has gone on until all are satis- 
fied, and the error is universally condemned, then comes up 
the tyranny of public opinion, as it is called. It consists in 
the lact that every man has studied the subject until he is 
saiistied, and so will study no more. The books cease to sell, and 
tlie aifair has gone by. Fanny Wright and her associates have 
had fair play. They have preached, and written, and explained, 
and enforced, until the good sense and intelligence of the people 
has brought them to reject infidelity and brand it as a great, and 
dangerous, and palpable error. The discussion is ended ; the 
books will not st-ll ; the people will not go to the lectures, and 
the plans of the infidels are overthrown and put down by the 
free decision of every man for himself, as no fires or tortures 
of an\' sort could overthi-ow them. Men who belong to the 
minority are very apt to complain of the tyranny of the majoiity. 
The majoiity is sometimes truly tyrannical. But such tyranny is 
in general of a mild type, and the grand safeguard against this 
tyranny is, that discussion is left fne. If the majority acts vio- 
lently and oppressively, discussion will wear away its influence as 
the sun subdues the banks of snow and ice, and the tyrannical 
majority will, before it is aware, find its power gone. Bat dis- 
cussion in arbitrary governments cannot be had ; and if it could, 
where would be the use of convincing the tyrant that the indul- 
gence of his cruel passions was wiong. Right and wrong are 
not the landmaiks or the motives of his policy. But in a repub- 
lic, where the power is all really in the hands <:if the people, 
tyrann\' will always find a ready counteraction. All the good 
and bad feelings of those who witness it, rise against it, and it is 
soon overthrown. Majorities here have to conduct themselves 
with great circumspection, and our experience has made us be- 
lie\e that the only way for any party long to maintain itself here 
in power, is, to pursue in the main a policy favorable to the 
public interests. So the tyranny of hberty is in the main only 
the perfection of liberty. 



470 INDEPENDENCE. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

\_From the Journal of Commerce, September 23, 1840.] 

Scarcely anything is more desired, or more misunderstood, than 
independence. When a man has acquired a great amount of pro- 
perty, and has a jrreat number of tenants, and clerks, and servants, 
and above all a vast circle of fashionable acquaintances, so that the 
keeping of his happiness is in a thousand hands, from some one 
of which he is always suffering, then he is called independently 
rich. He cannot appear abroad without the help of a retinue, 
nor then but on condition of being dressed exactly so, and con- 
forming without scruple to all the follies and sins which the 
fashion of his class decrees, — all for the sake of being indepen- 
dent. 

In judging of independence in others, men commonl}^ take 
themselves as the standard. They think all other men who think 
and act as they do, independent. Thus a politician, so long as 
lie adheres to the opposite party, is a slave to party discipline, to 
bribery, corruption, the possession or the hope of office. But 
so soon as he comes over to our side, he instantly shows that he 
is a man of sterling independence. He has broken the shackles 
of party, whicli his generous spirit could no longer brook. Men 
love independence in themselves, and think they admire it in 
others. Above all they admire it in an editor. An independent 
pi-ess is the beau ideal, the beautiful thing, of their admiration. 
Especially in a free country, and among an intelligent and moral 
people every body says the press should be independent. Yet 
liow few there are who mean by this anything but a press whicii 
will reiterate just what they themselves think and believe. To 
be unconvinced by ai-guments which are so convincing, and to 
differ in opinion from men so universally in the right as them- 
selves, is a kind of independence which few men will endure. 
They cannot understand how any one can be so perverse as to 
differ from them, except under the influence of some bank or 
other hot-spring of corruption. There is nothing about which 
men desire an independent press so much as in the matter of po- 
litics ; and there is no topic on which they bear independence so 
poorly. About these matters, ■ there is nothing excites more 
anger than simple statements of well authenticated facts. Even 
some good men get so becrazed, that although they will labor in- 
dustriously, and give their money freely to support and spread 
the truth in other departments, they will not consent to have a 
newspaper about their premises unless it will repeat all the false- 
hoods, vituperation, and personal blackguard of the party press. 
Bonaparte wrote to his wife very truly, " There are no such 



WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 471 

slaves as we." So it is generally. The higher men rise in au- 
thority as it is called, the more completely are they subject to 
the control of those whom they govern. The more they succeed 
in the accumulation ot" money or power, the more they render 
themselves dependent. True independence is best secured in 
narrow circles, by prudence, industry, and integrity, and a ge- 
nerous distribution of surplus possessions to supply the deficien- 
cies of others. 



WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 
IFroin the Journal of Commerce, April 11, 1848.] 

The English language having been constructed befoi'e the 
French Revolution of February, 1848, possesses no words ade- 
quate to characteiize that event, and the events which have 
succeeded. When thrones which have stood for ages are 
overthrown by the dozen, there is no use in trying to do more 
than to state the simple facts as they occur. They are their own 
most eloquent description. To call them astonishing, astounding, 
or benumbing, is a tame expression. We should like to hear the 
transcendental philosophers attempting just now to define "the 
idea of a slate" — that mysterious, superstitious nonenity of theirs. 
'J'he full idea of what has happened no one possesses, and so it is 
not likely to be e.xpressed. 

Sometliing unseen must have been working underneath those 
thrones for years, or they could not have fallen so easily. No- 
body seems to possess any power but the people ; no principle 
to have enei-gy but liberty. Both these do their pleasure. 
Standing armies, garrisoned castles, family alliances, all those ar- 
rangements in which kings have hitherto trusted so securely, are 
powerless now. What has done all this ? Certainly we have 
necn notliing adequate to the production of such great changes. 
We all thought that superstition toward the church and the State 
held Austria as tlie nightmare ; but the people prove to be infi- 
dels to both. We reckon that ideas have been eating under these 
thrones ; truth has been there at work, quite silently, but very 
powerfully. Men have been thinking, and have learned that they 
had ritjhts. This is the heaving of thought, with e.xceedingly 
little of j)hysical force. 

Almost nil Europe is revolutionized into constitutional govern- 
ments, to be controlled by the people. Even Rushia, reposing in 
the cold North, is not content to be quiet. In that vast empire 



472 WHAT OF THE NIGHtI 

the controversy of feeling is between the nobles on one side, and 
the Emperor and the people on the other. 

The greatest of all wonders in the matter, is the high conduct 
of the mobs. Kings flee, or stay to concede, at discretion ; and 
rich men, panic-stricken, break all property in pieces, and tram- 
ple commercial order under foot ; while mobs act with a coolness, 
integrity and conservatism, which puts the " upper classes" to 
shame. What ails the men who have managed all the great po- 
litical and commercial affairs of Continental Europe ? Are they 
conscience-stricken, or only destitute of courage ? Surely all the 
small souls must have floated to the top of society, just at this 
time. The people have done nothing but change the shape of 
politics. They have everywhere conducted wilh a moderation 
which excites the world's wonder. They protect life, property, 
all but tyranny and bad government. To be sure, nobody knows 
what they tvill do ; but so far as they have done, no congress of 
sovereigns ever exhibited so much soundness of principle or pro- 
priet)'^ of action. If the wise men who despise those they count 
below them, had but exhibiied as much character as the mob, 
these commercial disorders would have been avoided. We con- 
fess we think better of men in their low estate, for these states- 
man-like opinions and movements of the masses. Many of the 
doctiines they proclaim are perfectly true, and put to shame our 
usury laws, and protective tarift's, and post- office monopolies. 
We cannot say what is to be ; for we do not know. But we say 
that the rich people of France have precipitated their own ruin, 
and we hope to see, " Uberty, equality, fiaternity," in their truest, 
and most philanthropic sense, seated firmly in the government of 
a free Fi-ench Republic. 

Americans must remember that their hand is in all these strikes 
for liberty. Our example, our principles, and our prosperity 
under them, have done more to break down the superstitions on 
which arbitrary governments rested, than all things else. The 
letters Avhich immigrants to this country have sent back to their 
fri(^nds, have furnished a vast amount of reliable information. 
Europe is engaged now, with the most intense interest, in study- 
ing America. Her leading spirits have, for years, been eagerl}' 
inquisitive of all Americans who came in their way. American 
books, from being rejected as worthless, are now eagerly sought 
for. We could point to a literary American traveler in Europe, 
who has orders from a dozen rojal libraiies there, to buy American 
books. The British Museum appropriated £2000 for the pur- 
chase of every book published in America, illustrati\e, in any 
wa)', of American affairs. European statesmen draw Americans 
to close intimacy with themselves, and we suppose we could 



HOW TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL. 413 

name at least one American wlio is cooperatinjr with M. Lamar- 
tine and his associates in the great labor of preparing the project 
of a constitution for France, to be submitted to the convention of 
nine hundred. At such a time the j)rinciples which we avow, 
and the practices wliich Ave adopt, are full of extraordinary im- 
portance. Let us show ourselves, every man of us, a true sup- 
porter of liberty and good order. If it is possible, we would 
that the firemen of Philadelphia should be so impressed with the 
dignity of their position, while the govei-nments of Europe are 
reconstructing, as to be awed into good behavior. Let us all be 
generous to the people who have done such wonders in so won- 
derful a way. Let us not be too coy of our confidence that they 
who have begun so well, will go on well to the end. How im- 
measurably is the diificulty of French affairs increased by the 
panic among the rich and influential. They could not have fared 
worse, if they had stood firmly at their posts during this storm, 
and kept up the life-pulse of business. How may the whole cur-- 
rent of destiny be changed by throwing so many thousands out of 
employment at such a crisis. But we trust that the great prin- 
ciples which the people have so nobly avowed and hitherto sus- 
tained, will carry them safely through. It will be a good time 
then for the timid to come back to their avocations. 



HOW TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL. 

\_Introduction to Professor Turner's " Kingdom of Heaven. "'\ 

What Paul said to the Athenians, may still be said to almost 
every collection of men, — " Ye are too superstitious." The hu- 
man mind looks naturally and earnestly to the senses, for in them 
it is accustomed to confide. It longs to have its gods, its priest- 
hood, and its rites made such that they can be seen and handled. 
To introduce and sustain a religion purely spiritual, has been 
more pertinaciously opposed than any other measure of God's 
moral government. The Israelites would be continually setting 
up something material to personify their ideas of the Deitv, and 
the same propensity still beats high in human blood. Romanism 
followed out this propensity and floated on its current luitil, in 
the name of Christi uiity, she had reinstated the same fabric of 
idolatry which the same propensity had before erected, and 
whicli Christ came to overthrow. Every memoiable event 
around which the affections of Christians had clustered, was 
bodied forth in gold and silver, or on canvass, and these images 
absorbing the affections which the events had excited, soon came 



474 now TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL. 

to be themselves loved and reverenced. The cross had transfer- 
red to it the merit of the sacrifice of Christ, and men in their 
ignorance, fell down before the wood, no longer striving to under- 
stand and feel tlie power of the atonement. Paganism does not 
pretend that images are real gods, but that tlie gods are in the 
images. So Popery would set forth God and the atonement by 
imagerj^ but soon the vitality of truth fades away, and a stupid 
adoration is paid to matter. Christ sought to strip all places, all 
men, and all things, of this superstitious reverence, and to hold 
up truth and a spiritual religion before man, that his soid might 
be purified, elevated, and made meet for an heavenly inheritance. 
But the superstition which still hangs over the most enlightened 
communities, and the most spiritual minds, warns every man who 
examines society or himself, of the dreadful weight of sense 
which still bears us downward to the earth and its debasement. 
Who, that examines himself, will not find in his mind some rever- 
jBnce for the house in which he has often worshiped, and espe- 
cially for the di'ttk from which truths which he loved and felt, 
have been so often uttered, and perhaps still more for the inan 
who has stood there and proclaimed those ti'uths. Shreds of 
Romanism there are perhaps, not yet thoroughly torn away from 
our habits of thinking, or perhaps new threads woven by our own 
dispositions, or perhaps both, twisting together and strengthening 
each other. We think the Catholic a besotted devotee, who will 
pray only in his church, while we perhaps go up to our own 
meeting-houses Avith just the same feeling, that God is there 
more than elsewhere, and that prayer ottered there will mce 
surely be answered. It is exceedingly difficult for Christian 
churches to divest themselves of the notion that some mysterious 
divine power has been transferred to them, and still more diffi- 
cult, 1 judge, for ecclesiastical bodies to divest themselves of the 
notion, that God has committed his power to them. 

If it has been difficult to maintain spirituality in single minds 
and collective bodies, how much more difficult has it been to 
bring men to realize, that by spiritual means alone the kingdom 
of God is to be sustained in the world. It is extremely difficult 
for men to believe that truth can win the day, and sustain 
the church. The almost universal practice of professed Chris- 
tians has been, so soon as they have obtained the power, 
to bring ecclesiastical combinations, pohtical authority, or at least 
wealth and station, to hedge about and protect the church. The 
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, can be wielded 
by little children, and often so proceeds from their lips as to cut 
down strong men. But that it can so turn every way as effect- 
ually to protect the tree of life, but few men have ever steadily 



HOW TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL. 475 

and practically believed. They have seen it written through all 
history, that truth, and truth alone, had power to sanctify and 
save ; yet they are alarmed when error stalks forth against it. 
They dare not trust truth alone in the fight, but run for green 
withes and new ropes with which to bind the giant. Nothing 
more distinguished the plans of Jesus Christ from those of all 
other masters of philosophy or religion than this, that he trusted 
the propagation and triumph of the new doctrines which he 
preached wholly to their own force. Not by might nor by 
power, but by my Spirit, was not only his theory but his prac- 
tice. He took his coadjutors from the humblest and least pow- 
erful ranks of society. " Put up thy sword," he said ; I could 
call legions of angels if I desired to use force. He prescribed no 
ranks in his kingdom, no orders of any sort, as others had done. 
" I am your master," he said, " and all ye are brethren." If any 
-one would be greatest among you, he can become so, only by 
preeminent service. Call no man master, and allow no man 
to call you master, for there is no master but myself. Who 
would believe this the wajr to overthrow kingdoms and revo- 
lutionize the world ? Would Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Con- 
gregationalists ? Can it be done without a " visible head" to the 
church — without Bishops to ordain and command, or Sessions, 
Presbyteries, or Consociations to rule ? Truth only, the Spirit of 
Christ only, and every disciple a preacher?" Even elevated 
piety says No ! and puts its hand to its sword. What, no 
plan for the suppression of error, but just that of preaching 
truth ? No ecclesiastical fence at all around the church ? 

Christ established no form of church government in detail ; 
and it is evident from what he said and did, that the only 
government which He could approve, must be that of the broth- 
erhood ; and in their hands, the object of all regulation must 
be the security of individual freedom. This must be the object 
and ariangement, for Christ holds every one subject to him- 
self directly, and bound to do his bidding, not consulting 
with flesh and blood. His promised help was to individuals, not 
collections of men. The great business of those who became 
his subjects, was preaching, accompanied by works of benevo- 
lence. His last command was, " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature." He promised miracu- 
lous powers to all who should believe, and then ascended to 
heaven. The next verse says, " they loent forth and preached 
everywhere." The Lord did not withdraw his power or his 
care over these preachers, but blessed all of them, and the name 
of the Crucified One came to be known and loved, with wonder- 
ful speed, through the world. His true disciples still hear 



476 HOW TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL. 

his voice calling from heaven to them, " Go preach, go preach 
the gospel." But who are these that cry, " Stop, ask our 
leave f' Some of them are true disciples, strangely misun- 
derstanding their duty, and the plans of the Lord. Others 
are dumb dogs, that will not bark themselves, and do not like to 
be disturbed by any noise. It was the human conservatorship 
which men assumed to establish over Christ and his kingdom, 
that not only checked and prevented the accomplishment of his 
last order, but carried back the whole church again to paganism, 
and surrendered it to become the strongest fortress ever pos- 
sessed by Satan. Oh ! how the blood of the saints has flowed 
in rivers, under the ecclesiastical protectorship of the church. 
But for this, the world would have been full of the knowledge of 
the Lord centuries aero. It is heart-breakinw to think of the bns: 
agony which our race has endured, and especially the followers 
of the Lamb, because Christians have not trusted to and carried 
out the great moral and intellectual plan of Jesus Christ. And 
yet they will not learn. The great burden is. How shall we stop 
irregularity, how stop too much and too earnest preaching, how 
organize the hosts of God's elect into one great central unitij ? 
Still the voice fi'oni heaven cries to all who believe. Preach ! 
preach ! Still the conservative organizations cry Stop ! ask 
leave! and siill the nations he in darkness. But a new day has 
dawned, new methods of preaching have been devised. In Sab- 
bath-schools, in prayer-meetings, in the distribution of tracts and 
Bibles the Lord is preached, and all, who believe, are waking up 
and understanding that the cry. Go preach the gospel, means 
them. Many have gone to the heathen, others are going, sup- 
ported by those who remain with the stuff. Great principles of 
truth are being published all abroad, and error is giving ground 
even in its darkest and strongest holds. It is not conservatism, 
be it remembered, but liberty, which is doing all this. Let the 
disciples everywhere see and know that the day is breaking, the 
day of such labor and hope as never before dawned. If the 
world cannot be reclaimed now, if the mighty conquests of truth 
are to be yielded to unbelief this time, what can our world have 
to hope for? But the world is Christ's, and I trust his dominion 
is to be e.xtended over it by this present effort, during this day 
which is now dawning. Let every disciple address himself to 
the doing of whatsoever his hands find to do. Let every one 
preach the word in his own appropriate manner, enforcing his 
words by a Christian life. 

That this treatise of my excellent friend may encourage the 
disciples, and help them to see where their great strength lies, is 
my earnest wish. For that he has prepared it, and if my hasty 



A CLAIM TO SAINT SHIP. 477 

introduction, in the least degree, assists his benevolent design, I 
shall be most thankful to him for having requested me to 
prepare it. • 



A CLAIM TO SAINTSHIP. 
IFroni the Boston Recorder, October, 1847.] 
Messrs. Editors : 

I WANT to know whether I am not entitled to be put in the 
calendar of saints ? I see that several persons have been spoken 
of lately as having done a very meritorious and praiseworthy act, 
in making some sacrifice for the observance of the Sabbath. I 
have made some sacrifices in that way during my life without 
thinking much of it, but now I begin to suspect that I am 
a mucli holier man than I have heretofore thought myself to be. 

During the last year I made a journey to " the West." On 
returning, it would have saved me four dollars, I believe, to have 
paid my passage " through" from Chicago to Buffalo, but the 
boat would reacli Mackinac on Saturday night, and as I did not 
think it right to travel on the Sabbath, I paid to that place and 
stopped. Perhaps I ought not entirely to suppress the fact, that 
1 wished to see Mackinac by daylight, and when the boat arrived 
it was in the midst of a splendid moonlight only, which proved, 
however, to be altogether the best light in which to exhibit the 
place. But on the afternoon of the next day. Sabbath, the crack 
boat, Boston, came along — just the boat I wished to go in, and 
just the time I should have desired to start, but that it was the 
Sabbath. I am not a minister, and very likely no one on board 
would have known me ; yet I did not go, nor had I any debate 
with myself whether I should go or not, but staid until Tuesday, 
if I remember right, and then took a second-rate boat. 

I have a son who spent some months in traveling over the 
West. His trunk was stolen, the thief arrested, and my son 
compelled to give a bond for three hundred dollars, that he 
would appear at the opening of the court in Sandusky city on a 
Monday, in a future month, to testify against the thief. As tliat 
Moudav approached, my son found himself upon the shores of 
L;die Michigan. He took a boat, which was expected to arrive 
at Sandusky city on Friday, or at farthest on Saturday. But by 
some accident she was detained, and when the Sabbath sun 
arose, she was amidst the marshes of Lake St. Clair. At the 
first landing place my son went on shore, though he knew that 
by doing so he could not reach Sandusky city according to the 



478 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

bond. He took the first boat that came along on Monday, 
reached liis post Tuesday forenoon, and reached the court-house 
as the district attorney stood up to move the court that his bond 
should be dechired forfeit ; but he exchiimed, " Here I am," and 
all was right. 1 never had these things printed, and never 
thought much of them, but deemed them mere common duties, 
such as Christians are always accustomed to. But since I 
see such acts held up as rarities, things only performed by extra- 
ordinary men. I query with myself whether I am not something 
extraordinary, and mv family also, and whether I ought not to 
consider the holding back of the district attorney to the very 
moment of my son's arrival, as a miracle from the Virgin Mary, 
in illustration of the great love she bore to him and his holy 
deed. Say, are we saints, or nothing but every-day Christians? 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 

[F)om the Journal of Commerce, July 17, 1846.] 

Thomas Jefferson has been ranked by the more religious part 
of the community as an infidel. Yet some of his sayings are 
worthy of the highest place in the esteem of all good men. He 
could not have been the worst of infidels who said in reference to 
the slavery which then pervaded almost all the States, '' I trem- 
ble for my country when I remember that God is just ;" and in 
reference to government, " that which is morally wrong cannot 
be politically right." This last declaration stands in high con- 
demnation of that disregard of moral obligation which proclaims, 
" All is fair in politics ;" — " Our country light or wrong." Ac- 
cording to Mr. Jefferson's maxim, governments and political parties 
are bound bv the same moral principles which bind individuals. 
This is the doctrine of the Bible, and must be the doctrine of all 
intelligent Christians and philanthropists. The opinion has been 
industriously inculcated, that a state of war puts an end to the 
common liberty of free discussion, suspends the law of morality, 
for the time, and binds every good citizen to unite with all his 
powers in support of the government of his country, whatever 
his private opinions may be of the rectitude or wisdom of its 
measures. But the opposite of this must be true, upon the rule 
of Mr. Jefferson. War is so terrible a calamity that governments 
ought not to find it a protection against public scrutiny ; on the 
contrary, governments ought to be restrained by the conscious- 
ness that if they allow tiiemselvcs to be involved in war, they 
will be called upon to give ample rouions for so great an evil, and 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 479 

daring tlie progress of the Avar, will be held to a rigorous scrutiny, 
lest under the influence of its great temptations, they adopt mea- 
sures wiiich are immoral. That in tliese days a nation is at war, 
seems almost of necessity to imply a want of wisdom or sound 
morality. Tliere was force in that declaration of a Senator who 
exclaimed, " Of what value 'a your diplomacy, if it cannot save 
us from war." 

The war with Mexico came upon the Administration as unex- 
pectedly as it did upon the nation at large. It came, in con- 
sequence of the same false policy being adopted toward her, 
which was adopted toward England : the polic}'^ of raising the 
utmost hazard of war, that to avoid so dire an alternative, peace 
might come. The Administration no doubt expected the Oregon 
negotiation to terminate as it has, in an adjustment. Yet the 
notice, which, according to the declaration of the President, 
would, at the end of a year, present the alternative of an adjust- 
ment of the boundary — or war, together with the demand of 
more than was clearly right, with the rejection of all overtures 
for arbitration, and that in a tone of rough defiance, — all this did 
create in the minds of prudent men, a deep alarm, and but for 
the wisdom of our Senators, and our people, and the cool dignity of 
tlie British ministers, would probably have brought upon us a war 
as horrible in its consequences as it was unnecessary and worth- 
less in its object. By this policy, we have lost a portion of Oi"e- 
gon, which would have been ours if only we had floated on the 
tide of destmy, — a loss, however, of what is worthless, and so 
not to be regretted. But thanks to a kind Providence, the " kill 
or cure" policy terminated in peace, though not so much from the 
policy itself, as because it was counteracted and overruled by bet- 
ter plans. 

In our relations with Mexico this same policy has involved us 
in the other alternative, and plunged us into a war as perplexing 
as it was unnecessary. Oregon was fairly ours to 49, and Texas 
to the Nueces. Beyond these bounds our own statesmen were 
divided as to our title. Yet in both cases the Administration 
went for 54.40 as our " clear and unquestionable" right. It is no 
part of our purpose to extenuate the wrongs which Mexico has 
done us. Miserable Mexico, priest-ridden and robbed, has been 
groping in darkness for three hundred years, under the name of 
a Ciiristian community, but in all that time has made no progress ; 
for she has been guided not by the light of revelation from above, 
but by superstitions from beneath. Our object is only to find 
out what we, as a great, frei* and Bibli^ nation, ought to do, in 
ac.com plishinu' tin; high (Kstiny with which heaven has entrusted 
us. Wc know what is right, and can allbrd not only to be just, 



480 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

but generous, charitable, na}^ compassionate. Although Mexico 
claims the whole of Texas as hers, yet if we had confined our 
preten -ions, or at least our armies, within the boundaries of Texas 
proper, there would have been no war. There is very little ques- 
tion about this, in the minds of intelligent men. The settlers 
along the left bank of the Rio Grande, had never taken any part 
in the Texan revolt. They were Mexicans, as loyal to tliat gov- 
ernment as any other portion of the nation ; and although Texas 
spread her declaration of independence to the Rio Grande, it was 
never with the approbation of the people on its banks, nor in fact 
did real independence ever extend there for one moment. The 
absolute boundary of all sympathy with Texan independence was 
probably the barren desert midway between the Nueces and the 
Rio Grande. A just man will not take forcible possession of 
more than is his unqnestionable right, at least in his own opinion. 
That which is doubtful he will leave to negotiation or arbitration. 
If we had been goverrfed by the same rule, our armies never 
would have crossed the Nueces, and then our interests and honor, 
and the peace of the world, would have been preserved. Instead 
of this, we marched our army to the utmost verge of a question- 
able claim, and noi content with that, planted our cannon in such 
a manner as to control, and in eft'ect take possession of a city to 
which we did not pretend to have any claim. What boots it that 
in this position our General was ordered to be circumspect, and 
to declare that he came on a mission of peace only. His actions 
were hostile, irritating, insulting ; and they aroused the unwise ire 
of Mexico to its " sticking point." No conquerer ever yet an- 
nounced that his object was war. Bonaparte always marshaled 
his armies for peace. How, under these circumstances, can we 
appeal to Heaven, and say that this war is either " necessary" or 

The manner in which the constitutional sanction was obtained 
to the existence of war, it seems to us, is in the highest degree re- 
prehensible. In the excitement and agitation with which the 
news of a Mexican attack tilled Congress and the nation, the Pre- 
sident sent to Congress a message demanding the passage of a 
law recognizing the existence of war, with authority to raise fifty 
thousand men, and expend ten millions of dollars. A proposition 
to declare war, was voted down instantly in the House, but this 
executive call for a recor/nition of war the effect of which was pre- 
cisely the same, was urged through with the impudent and slander- 
ous declaration that every patriot who demanded time to think of so 
dire a declaration, was a traitor, and a Mexican at heart. Whf n 
Mr. Calhoun stood up in the dignity of a patriot Senator and de- 
clared his readiness to vote the appropriation, and the men, extrav- 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 481 

agant as was the extent of the demand in this respect, but asked 
a d;iy to consider the question of war, the proposal in botli its 
parts was refused by the leaders, and in the rush of furious ex- 
citement, not men enough were found to hazard their personal 
good for tlieir country's, to control the desperate movement. If 
a week had been allowed for consideration, probably if but a day, 
we should have avoided a war, and General Taylor's army, after 
having driven back the Mexicans to the other side of the river, 
would have leposed on iheir honors in a position much less perplex- 
ing than the one they now occupy. If the demand of the President 
had been limited to the five thousand men, asked for by General 
Taylor, how much better would our position now have been. 
That denunciation of deliberation, what was it for? Because it 
was foreseen that deliberation would defeat the declaration ; and 
that Mr. Calhoun would have the honor of saving the country 
from two wars in one session of Congress. Tluis, in mad defiance 
of all discretion, our commerce, and all bur interests were strip- 
ped of the protection of peace, subjected to the laws of war, and 
placed in a position from which it will require the cooperation of 
our enemy to extricate us ; for nothing but her agreement to a 
treaty of peace can perfectly repeal tliat act of our Congress. It 
seems to us that the nation should raise its voice in stern reproof 
of such a procedure, and put a mark upon the men who brought 
it about, which will caution future administrations against press- 
ing the most momentous of all questions which can ever be sub- 
mitted to Congress, through the two Houses, without time to be 
certain as to facts, and to deliberate calmly on their proper con- 
sequences. 

There is a strange circumstance at the basis of both controver- 
sies in which we have recently been engaged, viz. ; that there was 
no possible good to be obtained by war, nor by a domineering diplo- 
macy, which would not have been better obtained by peace. In 
the case of Mexico, we demand two things : a settlement of boun- 
dary, and the payment of indemnity. If we would but be quiet, 
our boundary would settle itself by the force of destiny, more 
resistless tlian our armies, and give us more than we can hope or 
ask for in arms. As to indemnity, we are spending vast sums of 
good money in pursuit of much smaller sums of bad. We are 
hoping that the inability of our debtor to pay his current expen- 
ses, will compel him to agree to pay our debt. We impoverish 
him and oui-selves, Ave throw away more than the debt, in ren- 
dering him hope'lessly unable to pay. What, under such circum- 
stances, can we hope for ? What do we intend ? Why, obvi- 
ously, to compel him to sell us California, in payment of the debt, 
— we giving him money to boot, — when the same California we 
21 



482 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

should, in better time, have gained for nothing, and perhaps 
have collected our indemnity besides. Turn -which way we will, 
therefore ; let our fleets and armies be as valiant as they may ; 
inevitable defeat and disgrace are in the very nature of the case 
before us. The whole affair must come to just such a result as 
Avould have ensued, had we invaded and conquered Texas ten 
years ago, and compelled Mexico to give Texas up to us, for the 
consideration of the money due from her, and five or ten millions 
of new dollars to be paid by us. Here then are we in a most 
perplexing dilemma. Our little army has covered itself with ho- 
nor, but not under the declaration of war, nor after the invasion 
of Mexico. Under the declaration of Avar we have invaded Mex- 
ico, and blockaded her ports. We have cut off her trade with 
all the world, and with ourselves among the rest. Now, resting 
in a quandary, we perform such an exploit as opening the port 
of Matamoras to Yankee notions, in despite of Mexican revenue 
laws, hoping, by showing that free trade makes cheap goods, to 
corrupt the people into rebellion, — not telling them that the 
same vicious policy prevails here. This singular blockade, to es- 
tablish free intercourse, we hope to carry into all the ports of our 
enemy. We look also wishfully for another revolution in Mexico, 
which will put some one at the head of aftairs who Avill help us 
out of the scrape ; and we proclaim to Mexican aspirants, through 
our government newspaper, that we war only '' against the ^var 
party in Mexico ;" thus rendering ihe United States an appen- 
dage to an opposition faction in our enemy's councils. California 
we can invade without waiting for factions to help us. In her 
boundless Avilds there are, in truth, but few people of whom to 
make factions in resistance of their own government or ours. A 
western army is bravely marching, therefore, upon Santa Fe, 
which, in our amazement, we find belongs to us ; or at least, that 
consistency compels us to say so, because it is on the left bank of 
the same brave river, Avhich was the boundaiy of the Texan de- 
claration. If Yucatan could only be brought to declare her in- 
dependence, making the same river the Northern boundary of 
her declaration, why then, by annexing Yucatan, we should hold 
all Mexico by the same sort of title under which we claim Santa 
Fe. But this claim is in contradiction to that upon which we 
rely in treating with Texas, viz. ; that she has for years maintain- 
ed her independence and governed herself. Santa Fe has never 
maintained or declared its independence for an hour ; and so, by 
our own rule, belongs to the government with which it has been 
associated. 

In the Message to Congress in which President Polk recom- 
mended the recognition of war he says, " I shall be prepared to 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 483 

renew negotiations whenever Mexico shall be ready to receive 
propositions, or to make propositions of her own." 

The terms of this declaration of the President have been essen- 
tially modified, however, by the government organ. The Union 
says tluit the objects of the war are "reparation — ^justice — 
peace." " When she shall proffer suitable terms, they will be 
accepted. Till this be done, our war will march steadily and 
vigorously on — it will ascend the table land of Mexico — it will 
maich from province to province, and from stronghold to strong- 
hold, until finally it shall dictate to Parades, or to any successor 
if need be, a compulsory peace, within the walls of his capital." 
IBravo ! verily, the editor speaks like a god. Here, then, the 
pledge is taken back entirely ; for "reparation" and "justice" are 
a broad basis for any demand, and mean that fighting is to cease, 
when Mexico submits to our demands. This is a total repudia- 
tion of the Presidential pledge. 

It becomes, under such circumstances, an inquiry of great in- 
terest, what are the demands which our government makes upon 
Mexico ; and whether they form any just cause for prosecuting 
the war. If we understand the matter, our government demand, 
first, that Mexico should treat with us. Secondly, that she shall 
treat about and fix a boundary between herself and the United 
States. Thirdly, that she shall agree to pay us Avhat she owes 
us. We appeal to the justice and moral sense of the American 
people to say whether in these things there is any justification 
for invading the territory of Mexico and killing her citizens. Has 
not Mexico, as an independent nation, a right, according to inter- 
national law, to hold diplomatic relations with us, or not, at her 
pleasure. This right is practised upon by ourselves and all civi- 
lized nations, without assuming that the withdrawal of such re- 
lations is cause of war, or even of offense. If pecuniary indebt- 
edness, or the settlement of a boundary is cause of war between 
nations, authorising invasion and slaughter, then may eveiy cre- 
ditor enter the house of his debtor, and shoot him down, and 
every farmer who claims a boundary about which his neighbor 
refuses to negotiate, may do the same thing to hira. The ground 
is no better in one case than the other : and we fear that the state- 
ment proves our invasion of Mexico with the intention of murder- 
ing all her citizens who attempt to oppose our invasion, to be not 
only without good cause, but unjust and wicked ; a crime of the 
blackest die. 

With these views it is easy to see how peace should be procur- 
ed. If we cease to prosecute the war there will be peace. To 
say we fight for peace is a delusion. Withdraw your armies and 
take a position of unquestionable justice. We should say, on this 



484 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

side of the Nueces. But if this is too much to hope for, then on 
this side of the Rio Grande. No nation ever had so fair an op- 
portunity to obtain real honor, and lay the world under obliga- 
tions to us, as we had after the Mexicans were repulsed. If in 
the midst of victory we had declared, " We will not disturb the 
peace of the world by a war upon Mexico, but content ourselves 
with vindicating the integrity of our soil, and our flag upon the 
highway of nations ; — if Mexico stops here, no more blood shall 
be shed ;" there would have been high honor in it, and sound po- 
licy too. That time is past ; but now, let our armies be with- 
diawn from Mexico, and our fleets from the blockade of her coast, 
and there will be peace ; as good a peace at least as has existed 
for the last ten years, and just as good as would exist under any 
treaty which could now be formed, our own recognition of war 
only excepted. If in a new treaty, Mexico should again promise 
us money, the non-performance of the promise would probably 
lead to renewed iriitation. Nothing is to be gained, and much to 
be lost, by a prosecution of tlie war. Trade will be lost. Many 
valuable lives of our own citizens will certainly be lost in the camp, 
if not in fight; and the attempt to capture the Mexican capital, 
will expose us to disaster and defeat, under the accumulated dis- 
advantages of an invading war. 

Sundry collateral reasons Ave know are urged for continuing the 
war, showing rather, that diiect reasons are wanting. It is said 
that the war will extend civilization and liberty, break down the 
oppression of hierarchy, and especially of military despotism. But 
these are such reasons of benevolence as the ambitious destroy- 
ers of otir race have always been ready to urge. The people of 
Mexico have a right to manage their own affairs, and be misera- 
ble until they can fuinish among themselves the men who are ne- 
cessar}' to their deliverance. It would be a strange assumption 
that the United States are obliged to set up schools for the Ca- 
tholic governments of South America, and compel them to be 
educated and reformed. The task would be more perplexing 
than the famous obligation to preserve the " balance of power" 
in Europe, which has cost so much blood and treasure. Be- 
sides, like all other possible objects of the war, these are much 
better accomplished by peace. The mission of the United States 
among the nations is one of reason, of intellect, of morals. It can 
only be accomplished in peace. While peace prevails, reason ex- 
tends her sway, and truth advances in her conquests. But war 
substitutes force for reason, violence for kindness, and turns back 
the hopes of philanthropy and religion. War has been the curse 
of mankind ; and this detestable Mexican war is the present 
curse and shame of these two nations, and especially of the United 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 485 

States, as most enlightened. Our influence will bless Mexico, if 
it is exerted peacefully. Tlie Bible men AviJl by and by reach the 
Mexican border in tlie tide of their emigration, and flow over 
among her people, carrying their intelligence with them. Before 
them, the Mexicans must be reformed, or silently perish like the 
aboriginal races of America or the negroes in the free States. 
Americanism is a principle, not a locality. Whoever adopts our 
principles, is an American in the best sense, wherever he may 
dwell. The great American principles of liberty and individual 
right, will give us the Rio Grande, nor stop there, but go on to 
conquer all Mexico, and all the nations of America ; whether to 
be addvd to our Union or not, is comparatively of little import- 
ance. California must fall into our possession. Everythincr 
which we fight for, will be accomplished much sooner in peace. 
Why then should we disgrace California by conquest, when we 
only intend to establish there free and independent States ? Why 
conquer Mexico with great cost, when of necessity we must im- 
mediately abandon the conquest? Why fight o^the objects we 
desire, and refuse to accept them when offered to us without 
money and without price ? Why oft'end Heaven and disturb the 
world, and destroy our own citizens, and squander millions of 
money for no possible good ? All our institutions and interests 
are liazarded by war ; all sure to be secured and advanced by 
peace. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 
[Frotn the Journal of Commerce, July 1, 1847.] 

Soon after the war with Mexico was commenced, I addressed 
my fellow-citizens, at least so many of thera as read the Journal 
of Commerce, under my own individual signature. To present 
my sentiments with my humble name attached to them, was ren- 
dered necessary by circumstances, — not because I was so thought- 
less as to suppose that m}^ name could add weight to my opi- 
nions. In that address I endeavored to show that the war was 
waged without reasons which could justify it ; for that, although 
the conduct of Mexico had been unwise toward herself, and in- 
jurious toward us, there were yet no facts in her conduct which 
authorized the nation to resort to war. I attempted to show, 
also, that the war was without motive on our pai-t, for there was 
nothing wliich its utmost success could bring to us, that would 
not be better attained by forbearance and peace. I also urged 
that the prosecution of the war involved dangers to our country 
of fearful importance. 



486 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

A year has passed away, and the time has come in which I 
think it possible that the same views may again be presented 
with some liope of usefulness ; and this, I trust, will be deemed a 
sufficient excuse for doing again what would otherwise be merely 
a piece of unworthy self-conceit. 

The war was entered upon by the government under a great 
mistake as to the proper measures for securing peace. It was 
not anticipated by the people or the government. No one ex- 
pected it a week before it was declared. If it had been antici- 
pated, it would have been avoided. The last reports to the gov- 
ernment were, that no considerable Mexican force was near Ma(a- 
moras, and that there was no danger of an attack. Suddenly a 
strong Mexican force crossed the Rio Grande. General Taylor 
sent to the govei-nment for five thousand men to repel the inva- 
sion ; but the President, after a Sunday's consultation with his 
Cabinet, seized upon the occasion to recommend a declaration of 
war, with an army of fifty thousand men ; and the members of 
Congress, afraid to stand up and avow their real opinions, voted 
assent to the executive recommendation, with a slavish serviHty 
suited only to the menials of a despot. The House of Repre- 
sentatives, with almost entire unanimity, voted down a war pro- 
position on one day, and yet on the next day voted almost as 
unanimously in its favor. A very few only of either party were 
found, with the real patriotism of the noble Calhoun, to exclaim, 
" I cannot vote for this measure. I shall remain silent." Yet 
there was more real glory in this exclamation than has been 
gained by all the trophies of the war. The object of the Ad- 
ministration was peace all the while. The President had adonted 
the notion that the way to secure peace was to make demonstra- 
tions of war ; to deal in threats ; to play General Jackson in fact, 
though without his comprehension of results. Whether the spirit 
of this policy was among the Cabinet Secretaries, or whether it 
was the determined policy of the President, is not known ; for no 
Cabinet was ever so perfect a unit (at least to the public) as 
ours, and never were personal opinions and Cabinet discussions 
preserved in such profound secresy from the people. This policy 
of threats had well nigh involved us in a war with England about 
the land between 49 and 54.40 in Oregon, for which now the 
nation do not care one straw. But peace had been secured with 
England, and the Oregon boundary settled, — perhaps the Presi- 
dent thought, by his threats ; other men think, by the opposite 
and conciliatory policy of the Senate and the people. The Presi- 
dent's object was a treaty with Mexico which should settle 
boundaries and establish permanent peace. This was a most 
desirable object, which previous Administrations had earnestly 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 487 

and patiently sought to accomplish. Mr. Polk had sought it in 
a conciliatory way. He had been patient and generous. He had 
even withdrawn our naval force from the neighborhood of Mexico, 
because her rulers stated that its presence was an embarrassment 
to negotiation. But the Mexicans behaved as poorly toward us 
as toward themselves ; and at length the President determined to 
renew with more vigor the threatening policy. He ordered 
General TajHor to break up his camp on the Nueces and take a 
position of intimidation on the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras. 
In this movement commenced the danger. The annexation of 
Texas was only a link in the chain of events, and no more the 
cause of the war than any other link ; though nearer to the indis- 
cretions which were the cause of the war. But it can w"ith no more 
propriety be set down as the cause, than the declaration of Texan 
independence, the battle of San Jacinto, the discovery of this conti- 
nent by Columbus, or an^" other event which was necessary to place 
affairs as they stood when General Taylor was ordered to the Rio 
Grande. It is impossible to show that any probability of war 
existed, while General Taylor remained on the Nueces. Neither 
did the removal of his army to the Rio Grande necessarily in- 
volve the issue of war ; no, nor even the irruption of the Mexi- 
cans upon this side of that river. General Taylor contemplated 
no such thing as war certainly, when he called for five thousand 
men. He thought of nothing but the security of his position, 
and that he in the end accomplished most gallantly, before a sin- 
gle man came to his aid. Had General Taylor been the execu- 
tive head of our nation at that time, this war had never been. 
No man in the country was more surpiised than he, at the de- 
claration. It was the declaration or recognitioyi of war hij Con- 
gress and the President, that made the war. Up to that declara- 
tion, there was no war, nor inevitable necessity or even probable 
cause of war ; and but for that declaration, we should have con- 
tinued as much at peace with Mexico as we had been for ten 
years before, or shall be hereafter upon the basis of any treaty 
which it will bo possible to make. The unwise determination of 
that unfortunate cabinet council, on Sunday, commenced the war. 
This is a good place to speak of " military chieftains," at whom 
so many of our citizens are alarmed, as if they were men whose 
breath is war. The history of our country teaches a different 
lesson. General Washington by his own personal firmness 
sa\ed us from war during his administration, though it required 
all his great influence to restrain the excited feelings of his coun- 
trymen. The Avar of 1812 was not declared under the influence 
of a military chieftain, but by President Madison, eniinently a 
civilian, surrounded by a civilian cabinet, and with so Httle of the 



488 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

firmness which is essential to railitaiy greatness, that he was 
driven from his own conscientious opinions by the Hotspurs of 
civil hfe, and compelled to recommend war. 

Under General Jackson we had no small bluster with France ; 
yet they who understood the matter always knew that there was 
not the least danger of war. His policy was always fixed on 
peace. Here now again we are at war under the guidance of 
men who know nothing personally of its agonies. With no mili- 
tary cliieftain in the Cabinet, and with a President who is a man of 
peace, who has periled his political standing in opposition to per- 
sonal combats, and in the cause of temperance and general good 
morals, — under such a President we are at war, and all by a 
great mktake. He knew little of war, and so played with it, as 
inexperienced children do with sharp knives, and the nation 
bleeds in consequence. There is another thought connected with 
this. If the aspirants for the presidency in the halls of legisla- 
tion get to understand tliat war creates new Presidents, they may 
be less disposed to vote for it. A measure which throws them 
from the line of promotion, will not be so likely Lo receive their 
support. 

It is proper to say here, too, that the declaratic)n so often 
made that " this is a war for the e.xtension of slavery," is utterly 
untrue. Mr. Calhoun, the great champion for the rights of 
slave-holders, was the most prominent opponent of the declara- 
tion of war. He besought the Senate to pause, if but for a day, 
and think of the direful consequences of what they wei'e in such 
haste to perform. The South as a whole, has shown quite as 
little favor toward the war as the North or the East. The 
solemn declaration of the Legislature of Massachusetts that this 
war is for the extension of slavery, therefore, exhibits either very 
culpable ignorance, or a more culpable disposition to create poli- 
tical importance by aggiavating the bad feelings of one section 
against another in this Union. Nothing is more common among 
small politicians, than this sectional sectarianism ; and nothing 
less in accordance with enlarged views and real patriotism. The 
war was a (jrcat mistake, — notliing else. It was declared as a 
pait of the policy of intimidation. The apparition of fifty thou- 
sand men and ten millions of dollars the President thought would 
soon bring the Mexicans to terms. " Blow upon blow," cried 
the Union ; " blow upon blow" must we give Mexico, until she 
consents to treat with us and restore peace. Sixty days of this 
policy, it was thought, would be quite enough to insure the de- 
sired result. But we have gone on for more than a year and 
have not peace. Our blows have followed each other in such 
terrible force, that the government of Mexico is annihilated. We 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 489 

have destroyed her ability to make peace. The war was declared 
as the means of peace, and for no other purpose ; though this 
means was resorted to the more readily, perhaps, from the war- 
like disposition of some people at the West and elsewhere. The 
President was perfectly honest in his plan, but utterly mis- 
taken in his means. His great iniquity has been in carryino- on 
the war so long, and with such misery to both nations, merely to 
save him.self from the humiliation of confessing that he had made 
a great mistake. He thougiit ten millions of dollars would be a 
sufficient e.xpenditure ; that few lives would be lost, and little 
evil in fact come in any way, from following out the policy of in- 
timidation. But he cannot be excused so gently in the loner 
prosecution of his plan. He has been driven from one excuse to 
another, and from one hope to another, until he is in dancer of 
resorting to reasons which may invulve us in war with all the 
world, and render us and our institutions a curse among the 
family of nations. From being the noble minister of peace, 
liberty and happiness among men, we are in danger of biinging 
back the dark ages of war and carnage, and putting republican 
liberty in such deep disgrace in the world, that tyranny in any 
shape will be preferred before it. I ask ray countrymen to look 
candidly at our present position before the world. Kings and 
emperors and aristocrats have combined to preserve the peace of 
the world, and yet this nation perpetuates the policy of devils. 
These United States, whose glory is love for individual man and 
protection for his lights, — who have all along proclaimed good 
will among men ; we to whom the Great Father of all men has 
given this wide-spread land of plenty, with millions of acres yet 
unoccupied upon which future generations may expand ; we to 
whom lie has given intelligence, spreading schools and churches 
everywhere, and placing his Book of love where every family may 
have it; we who have all that heart could wish, are the nation 
left last upon the earth to make war, to send our young men to 
invade the territory of our neighbor, to murder her young men in 
battle and her old men in their homes, — to spread desolation, 
terror and death, on every hand. This is the work in which 
America is engaged, now that all the other nations have abandoned • 
the abominable trade. What a curse we have inflicted on our- 
selves ! The waste of treasure is vast, but the nature of that 
consideration renders it almost unworthy of mention in compari- 
son with the terrific moral evils which have been brought upon 
us. Of thousands of our citizens who, leaving their peaceful do- 
mestic occupations, have engaged in this wicked war, nearly half 
have died miserably in tlie country which they have invaded. 
Some of them have been killed by the Mexicans in the honorable 
21* 



490 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

defense of their soil, but more have perished " by the visitation of 
God." And they who at the expiration of their year of engage- 
ment have fled to their homes again, — what are they ? Some 
are maimed, others infected with diseases which they bring home 
to propagate among their friends ; many broken down in morals, 
and transformed in one year, from good citizens, to the habits 
and feelings of ferocious war. What a curse has this war been 
already to our country ! A long list of " pensioners," not hon- 
ored as those of the Revolution, will fill up the ranks of that 
patriot throng who served in the defense of their country against 
a foreign foe, who had much more reason for invading our terri- 
tory than we have for invading that of Mexico. It is a consola- 
tory reflection that these citizens of ours who have suffered so 
pitiably in Mexico, went voluntaribj to their destiny. They were 
not conscripts taken by force from their occupations. They went 
of their own accord to invade Mexico, and if they have perished, 
it was in their own chosen way. 

Under such views, the second invasion of Mexico, under Gene- 
ral Scott, seems to me a measure of unmitigated wickedness. We 
had fought long enough to know that that was not the way to 
peace, and that to figlit longer must be without an object. Yet 
the city of Vera Cruz was doomed. The foundries of our com- 
merce and manufactures were turned from their useful pursuits 
to the manufacture of bomb-shells and all the implements which 
destroy cities. The explosion of these shells in palaces and in 
private dwellings, where the mother sat terrified in the midst of 
her family, was foreseen and deliberately resolved upon. It is 
idle, in a moral view of the subject, to plead " the laws of war." 
Those laws, no more than the laws of honor or the laws which 
regulate the internal police of a banditti, are recorded in the 
Bible, or will be pleaded in that great day when rulers and peo- 
ple must stand on one level, to be judged by that perfect Chris- 
tian rule, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them." 

Well, what are we to do, after all the wrongs of the war ? AVe 
have trodden down the national existence of Mexico, so that 
peace upon a basis of the national will is impossible. Whatever 
treaty we may now make will be in reality a farce ; a mere thing 
dictated by force ; and so it will be understood by the civilized 
world. It will be impossible for us to acquire a good title to the 
least thing conceded by any such treaty. Besides, Mexico has 
nothing that we want. She has nothing to cede but ierritory, 
and more territory at present would be a curse to us. Our popu- 
lation is rambling too loosely for our best interests. Our laws 
and our responsibility are already spread to very dangerous ex- 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 491 

tents, over people so thin and of sucli habits that the whole na- 
tion is kepi in constant exposure. Even the ports of the Pacific 
are now as fully open for our use, and were before the war com- 
menced, as they ever will be. It is but damage and indefinite 
hazard that we extend our territoiy further by force. The rapid 
advancement of our population will show in future years what will 
then be required. But if the territory of Mexico or any portion 
of it were worth our having, it is impossible for us now to gain 
any good title to it. The annexation of ^ single square mile of 
Mexico, under our present conquests, would be only the annexa- 
tion of an indelible blot upon the history of our nation. We 
could never own such a territory upon the ground of any moral 
right, and no other right can be anything but a moral wrong. 
We bought Louisiana ; we accepted Texas by negotiation with 
her lawful government. Now to annex more bj'' conquest, would 
be the adoption of a policy of wickedness heretofore unknown to 
us, and with which the annals of this republic are not yet stained. 
May they never be stained by such a deed ! While we purchase 
or annex, by peaceful treaty with lawful sovereigns, we follow the 
leadings of deslinj^ ; but annexation by conquest, once admitted, 
will burst the bolts of morality, and open the door to a future 
policy of terrific hazard to our nation. The plan of taking a line 
across Mexico from the Rio Grande to the Pacific, or that of tak- 
ing permanent possession of her sea-ports, either or both to- 
gether, are incomparably preferable to the prosecution of a bloody 
war. But neither of these can be sustained upon any ground of 
morality or of sound policy. They only appeal for support to 
that pride which so often goes before a fall. 

The war has brought our relations with Mexico into a position 
which must startle every thoughtful man. We have destroyed 
her government, and we find ourselves in possession of a burthen 
which we know not how to throw off. The question was, how 
shall we gain possession of Mexico. It now is, how shall we rid 
ourselves of Mexico. Such monstrous thoughts are suggested 
by this monstrous state of things, as the maintenance of a repub- 
lican government in Mexico by the force of a permanent armed 
occupation. This monstrous plan seeks support in the philan- 
thropy of civilizing Mexico and teaching her people how to govern 
themselves. We are called to no such hopeless education of our 
neighbor ; and the attempt would be quite as likely to barbarize 
the United States and break up our government, as to civilize 
Mexico and establish her institutions. 

In the midst of all the dangers which surround us, there is but 
one clear way of either sound morality or sound policy. It is to 
come out of the difficulty by the same path through which we 



492 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

entered it. In short, to abandon the war ; to call home our 
young men, and leave Mexico whole and entire to her own man- 
agement, and ourselves to the full enjoyment of the boundless 
prosperity which Providence bestows upon us. The cr)-, No 
more appropriations for the war, must go up from all parts of the 
nation. It is tlie only cry that can place us in safety. To ex- 
press opposition to the war, without declaring that th.3 war is to 
be abandoned ; to opuose it, and still vote supphes for it, is only 
to support the Administration in carrying it on. No man in the 
nation would be more relieved than the President by seeing an 
end of the war. If I understand his feelings, he would have 
been happy if Congress had refused appropriations at their last 
session. But no one dares to take the responsibility of recom- 
mending an abandonment of the war. What a disgrace it implie.s 
upon the Christianity of our country ! The President recom- 
mended the war, and Congress, afraid of the people, voted it. 
He points out the means of carrying it on, and they vote the 
men and money through fear of the people. In my judgment, 
the President and Congress underrated the intelligence and mo- 
rahty of the people. Let the people speak, then, and undeceive 
their rulers. Let them know that they stand at the head of a 
nation, not of military rowdies, but of Christian men, full of the 
wisdom of peace and good will. At any rate, the tide must be 
turned by the people, and it can only be done by a bold and 
loud demand that the war should be abandoned. JYo more ap- 
propriations for the war. — Come away, — Let Mexico aloxe ! ! 
must be proclaimed through the land. Let no man call himself 
a friend of peace who is not willing to take this attitude. All 
other opinions are upon the whole in favor of war. 

But whatever my countrymen may please to do or say, I do 
not intend to live or die with any of the blood-stains of this war 
upon me. DAVID HALE. 



Sl|i|ienhix\ 



APPENDIX A. 

In 1G90, Mr. Hale was invited by tlie General Court to 
accompany the expedition against Canada as chaplain. Not- 
withstanding ihe earnest remonstrance of the church and town of 
Beverly, Mr. Hale accepted this invitation and was absent from 
his flock for sevei'al months on this public service. "In 1734, 
the General Court, in consideration of the time and service ren- 
dered, granted his heirs three hundred acres of land." 

As an illustration of his libeiahty and public spirit, it is stated 
that during the old French war, on one occasion Mr. Hale 
" diiected the selectmen to appropriate £6 of his salary — nearly 
a twelfth part of the whole — to public uses ;" and on another, 
loaned the town money for the same purpose. He also con- 
tril)uted libeialiy towaid erecting a house of won 'lip. 

Mr. Hale, in oommon with many of the most influential men 
of the day, was to some extent carried away wit!; the delusion of 
witchcrafr, though he did not take an active part in the prosecu- 
tion and trial of the accused persons. But in 1GH2, his own wife 
was accused of witchcraft, though none could be found to 
believe the charge ; this opened his eyes to the fanaticism 
that prevailed upon this subject, and with great frankness and 
boldness, he acknowledged his own error, confronted popular 
opinion, and sought to prevent the further saciifice of life 
to that terrible delusion. His " Modest Inquiry into the Nature 
of Witchcraft," a work everywhere commended, hastened the 
close of the Salem traged3^ 

[The foregoing facts are derived from a " History of Beverly," 
by Edwin M. Stone.] 



494 APPENDIX. 

B. 

Nathan Hale graduated at Yale College in 1'7'73 with the 
highest honors. On leaving college he taught school at New 
London, but on the breaking out of hostilities between the colo- 
nies and the mother country he joined the army, entering 
the regiment of light infantry under Colonel Knowlton of Ash- 
foid. Before the age of twenty-one he received a captain's com- 
mission. In September, 1776, when the American army was 
quartered in New York, the Commander-in-chief wished to 
ascertain " the numerical strength and contemplated operations 
of the enemy," who had just been evaded by the skillful removal 
of the army from Long Island. For this purpose it was neces- 
sar}' that some one should penetrate to the heart of the enemy's 
camp, and Colonel Knowlton was charged with the selection of 
an individual to perform this office. The nature of the service 
admitting no delay, a proposition was submitted by Colonel 
Knowlton to the officers, when young Hale was the only one 
found ready for the perilous undertaking. His j^outh, intelli- 
gence, learning, polished manners, discriminating judgment and 
fidelity, all combined to recommend him to the Commander-in- 
chief, who gave him his instructions in person and sent him on 
his important but dangerous errand. Captain Hale succeeded in 
ascertaining the lines, posts, and numbers of the enemy, and 
their contemplated movements, and was just stepping into his 
boat to return, when he was seized as a spy, and taken back to 
the Bntish commander, who without any investigation ordered him 
to he hung the next morning. It is stated that " this peremptory 
order was carried into effect, in a barbarous and revengeful man- 
ner by a refugee to whom he had been delivered for execution 
by the British commander." The last words of this young 
hero — for he was then but twenty-two years of age, were 
expressions of regret that he had but one life to lose for his 
country. 



I 



APPENDIX. 495 

C. 

ROCKVILLE, Aug. 13, 1842. 

Being now in my sevent3'-cighth year, I would, for ray 
own satisfaction, record some of the dealings of Providence 
toward me. 

I was born in New Haven, December 0th, 1704. My father, 
Samuel Austin, descended from one of three brothei-s, emigrants 
from England. My mother was daughter of Dr. Alexander 
Vrolcott, early in life of New Haven, but after of Windsor, Con- 
necticut. My parents gave me much religious instruction, but 
my schooling was much interrupted by the Revolutionary war. 
1 was under the ministry of Dr. Jonathan Edwards until I was 
in my twenty-sixth j'ear (the time of her marriage). 

In 1790, my father died, and I was married to Rev. David 
Hale of Lisbon, with whom I lived very happily until 1822, 
when he died in the triumph of faith. In 1804, my husband 
being in poor health, he was dismissed and we moved to 
Coventry. 

In my childhood and youth I had many seasons of solicitude 
about my soul's safety, and struggled with many temptations 
and trials, but at the age of about fifteen I hope I gave myself 
up to the Savior. The text of Scripture which speaks of 
receiving the kingdom of heaven as a little child gave me great 
comfort, and I felt that I could trust in Christ and go on my 
way rejoicing. On the first Sabbath of July following I was 
admitted to the church under the pastoral care of Dr. Jonathan 
Edwards, at New Haven. Since I united with the church 
I have had some seasons of great darkness and temptation, but 
the Lord has carried me through to old age, and I would 
now testify to Ilis goodness, and rejoice, and bless His holy 
name. 

(Signed) LYDIA HALE. 



496 APPENDIX. 

D. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 



[To his Mother during the Cholera c>/"'32.] 

New York, July 16, 1832. 

My Dear Mother: — I have received and read with deep 
grief your letter from Coventry. I hope our kind friend Major 
R. and his afflicted family will be able to stay themselves on God, 
and so be kept in perfect peace. Truly, this is a world of death. 
There is nothing solid but that which has its foundations in God. 
He is everlasting strength, and they who trust in Him shall be as 
Mount Zion which cannot be moved. We are here so surround- 
ed with death on all sides, that we become familiar with the ra- 
vages of the dreaded King of Terrors. 

You will find in the Mercury of this week full and detailed ac- 
counts of the cholera among us. Those accounts have been 
chiefly made up by myself, and you can receive them in the same 
manner as if they were all repeated in this letter. I wrote you 
three letters directed to Vernon, and sent you a daily paper there, 
presuming that you would feel a good deal of anxiety about us. 
But I hope you will not feel greatly anxious about us, but put 
your trust in God, and be willing that He should do all his plea- 
sure. Notwithstanding the great number of deaths in the city, 
I do not feel much in danger, and if I did I am fastened to duty 
here, and cannot change ray ground without an abandonment of ray 
duty. Scarcely an individual of all my acquaintance has suffered 
from the cholera. Not a merchant has died, and the deaths in 
all the principal religious societies are I presume quite as small 
as usual. I am in the most perfect health, and my family are so 
with one or two slight exceptions. Altliough we are in health, 
and from all we know do not believe our danger much greater 
than usual, yet the knowledge that something like a hundred 
persons perish daily in the city in which we dwell, by such a dis- 
ease, produces some rather chilly sensations, and takes away 
most of the hilarity which is indulged at other times. It is a 
good opportunity to learn how entirely we are in the hands of 
God. How fully true it is tliat in his hands our life and breath 
are. I have some such feelings as I am glad to have, but need 
;i great deal more grace. 

I still intend to visit you this summer, but the sickness here 
renders the time more uncertain than it would otherwise be. I 



APPENDIX. 497 

do not expect that the cholera will go on to rags; for many days 
as it is now raging. It would not be in accoidance with its 
movements anywhere else. But no one know.- save He who 
controls the destroying angel. 

I am, your dutiful son, 

DAVID HALE. 



[To his Mother during the Cholera of '32.} 

Nkw York, July 28, 1832. 
My Dear Mother : — 

" Safely through another week 
God has brought us on our way." 

So far as my family is concerned we have to speak of good- 
ness. The pestilence has not come nigh us, and we feel as if we 
had now become so accustomed to a bad atmosphere that we 
can breathe it almost without harm ; at any rate ve feel more fjrrn 
and compact in body than we did two weeks ago. 

This week has brought on a great relief from the severity of 
the prevailing epidemic. On Saturday last the i.ctual number of 
deaths from cholera was 152. The report yesterday was 63, and 
to-day 70. The somewhat worse report of to-day, than yesterday, 
is only the irregularity which Ls to be expected in the retirement 
of the disease. I send you by this mail our evening edition of to- 
day's paper, which will give you the news. At Brooklyn, the dis- 
ease is to-day quite as bad, in proportion to the number of inhabit- 
ants, as it was here a week ago. May a merciful Providence 
speedily avert this dreadful pestilence from us. When it departs 
I shall feel an immense load removed. The continued care and 
" sharp look out" we keep, the editorial responsibility of writing 
so as to do good and not hurt ai such a time, and the conscious- 
ness of the distress around me, become painful from long- con- 
tinuance, more painful than any apprehension about my own per- 
sonal safety. 

I hope, my dear mother, you will be able to enjoy much of 
God's presence where you are, and to feel not only safe, but re- 
joicing in his hands. He is a glorious object of confidence, and 
blessed are all they who put their trust in Him. 

Major R., I hope, gets much consolation from the great foun- 
tain. The joys of this world fade away, but the} whose portion 
is in God have an abiding source of joy which i'- not dependent 
on the springs of this world, and can never dr* up. There we 
may all drink abundantly — drink and welcome. 

Your dutiful sua, 

DAVID HALR 



498 APPENDIX. 

[Extract from a letter to his Mother, during the Cholera of '33.] 

" For myself, I feel more and more that the thread of life is very 
brittle, and I think some more willingness that it should be so. 
I should like to live to comfort you while you live, to train up my 
family, to see the Journal of Commerce free from debt, and ex- 
erting all the good influence of which it is capable, and furnish- 
ing me with the means of providing for my family, and doing some 
good in the way of charities. I should also be glad to see where 
this world will be in moral and physical condition thiity years 
hence ; and I expect to live to see all this. But as the Lord 
pleases. If he cuts me off this year, it will be because that is 
best. Whether living or dying, may we be the Lord's." 



[Extract from a Letter to his Sons, when absent at School.^ 

New York, August 8, 1833. 

My Dear Sons : — We have heard but little from you since 
you left us. We had a letter from R — announcing your arrival. 
Since then we have sent you a bundle of clothes, which we hope 
you received in due order. We were very sorry to hear that you 
had lost your money, because your expenses ai'e heavy upon us 
at the best, and we can ill afford to have them increased unneces- 
sarily. We were sorry also because the circumstance exhibited, 
as we found, a want of proper care in you, and is rather a proof 
that you will not be careful of things put into your possession. 
We were still further sorry for the manner in which R — mentioned 
it, for that indicated that the loss was little thought of or re- 
gretted. I shall never wish to teach you to be miserly, and to 
think that money is the chief good, and that to possess great 
heaps of it ought to be the chief or even a great object with you. 
But I know that heedlessness about money is almost sure to be 
followed by embarrassment and poverty, and with these a loss of 
character, and the means of usefulness. If a man would be 
happy, he must have his pecuniary affairs in a comfortable and 
easy way, and this in general can only be secured by economy 
and carefulness. Many a man of good powers of mind is ren- 
dered unhappy all his days, and counts but little any way in the 
world, because he has not sufllicient carefulness to take care of his 
money. I wish my sons to be happy and useful men, and in 
order for that, I know it is of the first necessity that they should 
be economical. Your living you must get yourselves. For if I 
am able to educate you well, it is about all that I c;au do, oi' if I 



APPENDIX. 499 

should be so favored as to be able, that is in my opinion about 
all which it is best for parents to do." 



\_To an absent Son, on the Death of an Infant Daughter. "l 

New York, January 9, 1836. 

Dear Richard : — I write you now Avith sad intelligence ; your 
little sister Martha Louisa is dead. The dear babe has been out 
of health ever since September. But a few weeks ago she was 
seized with a cold or something else, which affected her lungs a 
good deal. The inflammation we were not able to remove, and 
she sunk under it. We were not much alarmed until within a 
day or two. She died last night, and will be buried, as we ex- 
pect, to-morrow after divine service. The affliction is severe. 
We all weep under the chastisement of our Heavenly Father, and 
you will weep too, I dare say. And Richard, will you not now 
become a Christian? You too must die, and you cannot be jus- 
tified, as I trust Martha is on the ground that she has never 
knowingly and voluntarily rejected the Savior. You have heard 
of Jesus' dying love, and have refused it, and unless you com& 
and submit yourself voluntarily to Him, you cannot be saved. 
And, my dear boy, what do you intend to do with the learning you 
are acquiring ? Will you make yourself respected as a learned 
man, and gain the fame of literature ? I know that you must 
feel that such an aim is quite too low for an immortal being. 
Nothing but the service of God in a course of humble and obedi- 
ent usefulness is worth living for. But if you live for the glory 
of God, for the salvation of men, you will live for the same ob- 
jects for which angels live, and exert their noble powers. I have 
for some time been intending to write you a letter, and try to 
bring you to reflect seriously on what you are doing, and per- 
suade you, if possible, to dedicate yourself to the sen-ice of God, 
If you were but truly pious, if you had a covenant with God, 
that all things should work together for your good, I should 
feel quite safe concerning you, and should rejoice to have you 
serve God in any part of tlie world, and if called to part with 
you, we should do it mourning, yet rejoicing. But I feel con- 
stantly anxious about you now, for I fear God is on the principles 
of his holy administration your enemy, that His law condemns you, 
and you have no refuge in His mercy through Christ. Will you 
not, my son, make this a subject of deep consideration and 
prayer ? In whose service will you spend your life ? Say shall 
it not be the service of God your maker. Let it not be the ser- 



500 APPENDIX. 

vice of His and your own worst enemy. I shall not cease to pray 
that the Holy Spirit would draw you to the blessed Redeemer. 
Show this letter to D — Tliese considerations are worthy of his 
most serious regard. We all love you much. 

Your affectionate father. 

DAVID HALE. 



[Extract from a letter to a Son, icho uus absent on a Jotirnei/.'] 

You do well to watch over the feeling of recklessness which 
you mention. It is a common feeling with persons who leave the 
circle of their acquaintances. It shows them, much to their sur- 
prise often, how great are the restraints of society, and how little 
they are accustomed to feel the presence of God. The cure for 
it is self-examination and prayer. Cultivate a stronger and more 
vivid apprehension of God's presence around you, mj' son, and it 
will replace most happily what feeling of restraint you have lost 
by leaving the circle of home. Many persons in this condition 
have been ruined. Tliey felt restrained from doing wrong while 
at home, and supposed, perhaps, that it was sound moral senti- 
ments, and pious reverence for God's laws, which restrained 
them. But when they went beyond the watch of their acquaint- 
ance, they learned tliat their restraints were local, their gods 
were gods of particular places. May the Lord never leave us to 
GUI-selves. All the family remember you affectionately. 

Your father, DA VI D ' HALE. 



[Extract from a letter to a Son who was absent on a jour net/.'] 

New York, July 17, 1838. 

My Son : — I got your letter last week. Now that my children 
are scattered in all directions, it is a great pleasure to have them 
writing home, making the paternal ground the central point of 
family correspondence. From this point we send back the ravs 
of information, so that each member is tolerably well informed 
about all the rest. * * * " * 

I see in the Boston Baptist Watchman a letter speaking of a 
very rich revival of leligion now going on in Schenectadv, which 
has included a considerable number of the college students in its 
influence. There are no influences which I would recommend 
you to seek so earnestly as those of the Holy Spirit on such oo- 



APPENDIX. 501 

c'lsions. Yuu luive never since or before you enterlainod a ])ope 
of your new birtli, been sufficiently disposed to attend evening 
meetings, or any places favorable to religious improvement, ex- 
cept the regular services of the Sabbath. I do not know but I 
have been faulty in tiot taking you more with me to such meet- 
ings. It is at any )ate, I have no doubt, quite indispensable for 
every Christian who would grow in grace and knowledge to devote 
regularl}^ some portif.n of his time in social religious intercourse 
■with his brethren, if be would grow in grace, and knowledge, and 
when the sjiccial inijuences of the Holy Spirit are descending 
like dew around him, he should take special care to drink of it as 
largt ly and freely as possible. The longer 1 live the more I am 
impiessed with the truth that it is a laborious business to prepare 
for heaven. To cultivate the heart requires patient watchfulness, 
as much as the cuUivation of the intelh^ctual powers. At our 
prayer meeting last evening a son of Mr. L. Tappan, lying at 
tlu! point of death, at New llaven, was made a subject of prayer. 
He is, I suppose, a student in the College, and probably not a 
great ways from your age. He is ho[)efully a Christian, and so 
ready to die. Yet it is a solemn and a gloomy thing almost, to 
die without more glowing faith than most men possess who 
have some faith. 

I send this by a gentleman of my acquaintance, who came in just 
now to ask to have the direction of his paper changed. The sav- 
ing of j)ostage is something, and a })lan of the sort, if pursued 
through life, amounts to a surprising sum. It is never worth 
while to spend a dollar's worth of time, which could be devoted to 
useful hnaiueas, to save a shilling, nor spoil a knife to skin a Hint. 
Still it will be found that savings make men rich oftener than 
anything else. So much so, that P'ranklin said, " a penny saved 
is two pence clear." I believe it was Franklin. 

Yolu- aflectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



[Ttf a Daughter at Boarding-school, when ten years old.'\ 

New York July 26, 1838. 

Mv Dear Daughter L. : — I was much gratified with the little 
letter you sent me some days ago, for although it did not contain 
any very important information, it was one of your first efforts, and 
quite like yourself. Parents love their children so much that they 
love to see them make blunders, and to make efforts of any sort, 
whether they be wise or full of childish folly. Your letter how- 



502 ' APPENDIX. 

ever was quite a good one, for so little a girl's first effort to write 
to her father, and I shall expect you to keep on writing, and that 
each successive letter will exhibit more and more knowledge, 
until you can easily write as long and as good letters as Mary 
and Lydia. L., I believe, took down a hoop which will probably 
answer your purpose. But you must remember that you are at 
school at Araboy, and that your chief business is to learn your 
lessons. You will, to be sure, have plenty of time for play, in 
which I shall be glad to have you enjoy yourself, but if you 
would be happy at play, you must not go to play with a heart 
heavy because your lesson is neglected. I do not expect you 
to be very wise now, but I expect you will be wise enough to 
obey those who are older and wiser than you, and I hope, above 
all, you will be wise enough to obey God, whose laws are all 
perfect in wisdom and goodness. You see what a long letter you 
have got by just writing me such a little one. 

Your affectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



\_To two of his Daughters, abroad at School.'^ 

Wednesday Evening, Deo. 6, 1838. 

My Dear Little Daughters : — It is long since I have seen 
vou or written to you, so thai I am almost afraid that I have 
neglected my duty as a father, and failed in using the proper 
measures to make you love me, as I wish you should. You have 
probably learned, by your own expeiience, to comprehend the 
truth of Solomon's wise saying, " He that would have friends 
must show himself friendly." This is true no less with regard to 
parents and children, than with regard to persons not at all re- 
lated. If you desire to make others love you, you will seldom 
fail of accomphshing your object, if you will begin by loving them, 
or by exhibiting that kind solicitude about their interests and 
happiness which love would inspire. So when you are in the 
company of others, if you wish to win their love, you must do it, 
not by talking of yourselves and your own great excellences and 
wonderful feats, but by talking of their interests and their ex- 
cellences and good deeds. 

You know, perhaps, that Dr. Devan and Lydia dined with us 
on Thanksgiving Day. We were quite happy in being so many 
of us together, and we did not forget those who were absent, and 
so I gave my toast with a tumbler of cold water. What do you 
think it was? It was "Richard, Lucy, Laura," and we were all 



APPENDIX. 603 

happy in drinking such a toast. I was happy in it, though I felt 
melancholy at the recollection of the name of another little one who 
has gone, I trust, to a better school even than the one where you 
are, but from which she will never come home in this world. I 
■would have repeated the dear name of Martha Louisa, if there had 
been no others present but our own happy number. My memory 
went still farther back, and beyond where your memory began, 
and I remembered the mother of your oldest sisters and bro- 
thers, and my honored father, with both of whom I had eaten 
many Thanksgiving dinners in great happiness. It was a thought 
too, full of melancholy pleasure, to look forward and expect that 
as one after another of us is called away, no more to meet in our 
happy circle, those who remain will not forget the absent. Nor do 
those who are absent forget us who remain behind. How sweet 
it is, in the midst of such recollections, to remember that all our 
intercourse with the dear ones who are gone was guided by lovo — 
that Ave did what we could to make them happy, and but little 
to grieve them. So I hope it may always be with us until we 
shall form our circle again in still higher happiness and love be- 
fore our Savior's throne in heaven, or in some one of those happy 
mansions which he said he was going to prepare in his Father's 
house. 

"We are much gratified to hear from time to time that you are 
doing well, laying up stores of knowledge, and commending your- 
selves to the approbation of your excellent teachers. Try to 
live each day better than anj^ before, and you will find that you 
do not exert yourselves in vain. 

Your affectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



[7b a daughter absent at School.'] 

New York, July 9, 1839. 

My Dear L. : — Your Ma has reminded me this morning that 
this is the birth-day of our eldest daughter — our Lucy. I should 
probably in the multiplicity of my avocations have not thought 
of it. But I am glud to be reminded of it, and glad to stop a 
few minutes, and reflect on the event which occurred thirteen 
years ago, when I first saw your infant form, and on the events 
which have marked your path thus far on the long-endless jour- 
ney you then commenced. We have much reason to be thank- 
ful that you live still — that your limbs are not broken — that you 
are not a maniac, but on the contrary that you have faculties 
which you have already learned how to use, so that we may be 



604 APPENDIX. 

delighted with the exercise of your opening powers, and hope for 
their continued r-nlargement, until you shall grow up a woman, 
capable of takir _ your station among the managers of this world's 
atfairs, and be a blessing to your parents, and all around you. 
Thirteen years is -nore than half of the distance, yes, full two-thirds 
of it, to vour -.n .manhood. They probably seem short to you 
compared with ihe years in prospect, but in this feeling, if you 
have it, I forewa-n you of disappointment, for the thirteen years 
of your life thus far, are the longest yeai-s you will ever see, un- 
K'ss, indeed, Go.i should give you years of tedious affliction. Tliey 
might possibly s'^em longer. Before you are aware of it your 
teens will be g'^e, your education finished, and your character 
formed. Is it n"t time, then, that all the essentials of a good char- 
acter shoidd hi.va been commenced? Is it not high time that 
your heart were c^iven to vour Savior, and that gracious work of 
sanetification cc;amenced, which alone can destroy the evil pas- 
sions of your heirt, which have already toubled you so much, 
and fit you to t j; happy here and in Heaven ? 

You will ne\t" be happv in the highest deg"ee of which you 
are capable, while you stand in opposition to the glory of God, 
and the great p^ms of his goodness to bless all his intelligent 
creatures. For} our rebellion against infinite goodness thus long, 
you deserve to be left to perish, but how dreadfully will your 
guilt be increasixl by thirteen years more of obstinacy, with your 
conscience enli£,!tened, and Divine goodness blazing all around 
you. Give your heart to the blessed Savior, Lucy, and never 
forget that until you do this you are going constantly the wrong 
ipay. We love vou very much, and think of you to-day with 
more than comi\i')n interest, and we praj' the good Lord who has 
conducted you thus far, with so much favor, will guide you safely 
on to Ilis heav( nly kingdom. 

I love little Laura, too, and wish her to read this letter. 

Your fond father, DAVID HALE. 



[ To another Daughter. "[ 

New York, AuCxCST 22, 1839. 

My Dear little L. : — I congratulate you on the return of 
your birth-day. and 

"I could give you a thousand kisses 
Hoping what my thoughts desire." 

I wish you a happy day, though I know you are to be disap- 
pointed in youi- rrish to soend the day at your " dear home" — a 



APPENDIX. 505 

nome dear to us all, and to your parents most dear, because it is 
the place where we first caressed you, and where we have en- 
joyed the numberless pleasures attendant upon having our flock 
of children around us. But the oldest of the flock are taking to 
their wings and flying away, so we must make the most of our 
little chickens ere they also fly away. The fact that to-day you 
are eleven years old, admonishes me that long before another 
equal space of time is past, you will stand before me a woman 
grown, no more to be whirled in the air, and ride on the shoulder 
of your father, but, if our lives should be spared, to take his arm, 
and be his companion. What I do for you, as your father, must 
be quickly done. I have prayed for you a great many times, 
that God would bless you, and make you love Him, and keep 
His commandments, that He would prepare you to be a usefid 
woman during the brief space of your flight through this world, 
and a beautiful spirit afterward in heaven, enjoying and serving 
Him forever. For rapidly as you have run from infancy to child- 
hood, and will go on to youth and womanhood and old age, 
these are not the end of changes, but one succession of them will 
follow another forever. It should influence you to behave in a 
womanly manner to know that soon you will be a woman, and 
it should elevate you proportionably more to know that soon you 
will be an angel. But angels have holy hearts. 

Your early years have been marked by some suffering in regard 
to your health. Those sufferings, though they have not been very 
great, have made us love you the more, and made us the more de- 
sirous that you should be very happy when you can be. Still pa- 
rents would be very imfaithful to their children, if they should in- 
dulge them in every one of their wishes, for they all want many 
things which would, in the end, harm them. God, whose sfovem- 
raent is all love, finds it necessary to treat us all so, and deny us 
many things which we most ardently desire, but which would 
ruin us, perhaps, if we were indulged. 

One of the most important things to be attended to on a birth- 
day, is self-examination. So you must set yourself to watch 
your young heart, and teach it early to seek God, and desire to 
be good. Be impartial with yourself, condemning all that you 
really think wrong, and determining this day to do better, and 
as you learn more to understand how fast times flies, learn to be 
more choice of it, and spend it better. 

While I live, you may always be sure of an affectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



22 



606 APPENDIX. 

[To his Daughters at School.'} 

New York, August 5, 1840. 

My Dear little Daughters : — I always take ^-eat pleasure 
in talking with you, and in writing too. But New York is such 
a busy place, that men who hold a position in its business, find 
their minds and hands so constantly occupied that even their 
children are apt to be neglected, though the education of their 
children is a matter of immensely more importance than laying 
up property for them. A father is happy under such circum- 
stances who has a good wife, as I have, to devote her affections 
and thoughts to the children. Your mother is about to visit you 
in her affection, to see if she cannot, in some way, do you good. 
Many children have parents who send them to school to get rid 
of them, and who always feel that their children are a burthen. 
You are so happy as to have parents whose happiest occupation 
it is to watch over and pray for you, and in every possible way 
to do you good. Especially we wish to imbue you with those prin- 
ciples and habits which will make you useful and happy. God 
who made the world has drawn the path of happiness very 
plainly, but it is a straight path with exact boundaries, and there 
are flowers, and a thousand things over the fence which look en- 
chantingly, and which, applying their enchantments to our pas- 
sions, urge us to break through to their enjoyment. But no one 
ever yet did so who was not in the result miserably disappointed. 
They who have tried it most thoroughly have learned that to fear 
God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man, 
and that all, more than that, is not only vanity but vexation of 
spirit. God has allowed us all that can make us happy, and He 
has assured us that in keeping His commandments there is great 
delight. The experience of Christians confirms this declaration 
of God, and proves that they alone have right opinions, and fol- 
low judiciously after happiness, who take the word of God for 
their guide. So I hope you will do, my dear little daughters. 
Yom* aftectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



[To one of the same, on her Birth-day.'] 

New York, August 22, 1840. 

My Dear L. : — ^Your father affectionately congratulates you 
on your twelfth birth-day. I think myself happy that you 
have grown so large, and so strong, and have learned so 



APPENDIX. 507 

much, and have still such excellent opportunities for learning 
more. I am glad to find you thinking so much of your 
birth-day. Time slips away so slyly, and so silently, that if 
we do not take care life slips away and is gone unnoticed. It is 
well therefore to have some spot where we " take note of time." 
Twelve years is no small space of time, and now you pass the 
mark as we pass the mile-posts on a railroad. One after another 
flies by, and before we count them almost we are at the end of 
our journey. This is a peculiarly happy birth-day to you, and 
your parents too, because we hope you have, during the past year, 
been born again, and are going on to be one year old as a child 
of God. Your parents rejoice with you in this great and glori- 
ous hope, and pray that you may indeed be adopted into God's 
family, and be taken wholly under his care. While we hope and 
pray, we cannot help remembering that you are very young, and 
as yet have learned but little of the exceeding wickedness of your 
heart, and of all hearts, and we look forward to your coming 
year to confirm our hopes, and give stronger evidence by your 
meek, and industrious, and prayerful life, that you are indeed 
something better than my child. 1 hope the year before you 
will be one of health and happiness to you, and that you will 
grow in knowledge and goodness, until y©u are perfect in the 
likeness of your Savior. 

With many joyful wishes for your happiness, 

I am your affectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



[To his Davghters at Srhool.'\ 

New York, Sept. 23, 1841. 

My Dear Daughters : — I feel as if I had been negligent of 
a father's duty in not wjiting to you more than I have. But you 
know how I am pressed with important cares every day, and 
every minute, and I hope you will not allow yourselves to suffer 
for want of my counsel. 

You have grown so tall that you can see into the world a 
good ways. I have no doubt that you see indistinctly floating 
about a great many bright objects which you hope as you go far- 
ther to be able to lay your hands upon, and make them your own. 
I hope you will be gratified in this* But you must bear in mind 
that it is not all gold that glitters, and that therefore some of 
these things, if you catch them, will only prove to be washed over 
with gold, and that very thin, wliile the substance is of some 



508 APPENDIX. 

baser metal. I trust, however, that you are not filling your 
minds with fancies, so that you will be disappointed with the re- 
ality, as so many girls are. This world is a very good world in it- 
self, and the people would be very good were it not for their bad 
dispositions. As things are, there is a great deal to enjoy, if only 
we go to work the Bible way. If we set about enjoying the world 
upon the world's plan, it will all turn to ashes in the mouth ; but 
godliness, with contentment, is great gain, and the world cannot 
rob us of it. So fear God, and keep His commandments, cul- 
tivate the spirit of Jesus Christ, and all your blessings will be 
enriched, and your disappointments softened and allayed. You 
must never expect to get everything exactly right at any time. 
This is not a world for such perfection. The ills we feel, there- 
fore, should not make us always desirous of change, lest we fare 
like the fish which jumped out of the frying-pan and fell into the 
fire. 

1 am looking forward to the pleasure of having you at home 
soon to mingle with us in all our enjoyments. 

Your affectionate father, 

DAVID HALE. 



APPENDIX. 509 



OBITUARY OF MRS. DEVAN'. 

From a letter of Dr, Devan, of October 22, extracts from 
■which have beeu published, it appears that the death of Mrs. 
Devan occurred at Canton on the evening of the Lord's day, 
October 18. She had been indisposed a week or two pre\ious, 
but it was onlj' a few days before her decease that the indications 
of illness became alarming. On the 12 th of October, " symptoms 
of abdominal inflammation made their appearance, which resisted 
all the means which medical counsel could devise ; and on the 
following Lord's day, at 10 o'clock, P. M., her spirit left the 
cumbrous clay, to join the great company of glorified martyrs that 
surround the throne." 

" The day before her death, she was asked, * Do you regret 
having come to the missionary field ?' The answer was prompt 
and definite, ' O, no ; nor that I came to Canton city.' At 
another time, ' What is the state of your mind ?' — ' Peaceful.* 
Then she asked, ' Do you think it possible for me to recover ?' I 
replied, (and it was the first intimation I gave her of her danger,) 
' There is very great danger.' — * Well,' she said, ' I am very will- 
ing either to live or to die, to recover or not, as the Lord may 
please.' On the following day she asked, ' Is my case fixed ?' I 
replied, * I fear it is.' ' Oh,' she said, ' it will be a release, 
a happy release.' Again she inquired, ' What day is this ?' I 
told her it was the Lord's day. ' I am glad it is, and when shall 
I die ?' On being told that she could not expect to see another 
morning, she said, * All is right !' — ' Lydia,' said I, ' have you 
any messages for your friends ?' — ' Only to tell them that my 
trust is in Jesus.' " Her remains were interred at Whampoa ; 
services at the house by Dr. Bridgman, missionary of the Ameri- 
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; and at the 
grave by Dr. Ball. 

Mrs. Devan was a native of this city, and daughter of David 
Hale, Esq., now of New York. She was converted to Christ at 
Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1832 ; and at the time of her death 
was a member of the First Baptist church in New York, under 
the pastoral care of Dr. Cone. She was appointed, with Dr. De- 
van, to the China Mission in March, 1844, and sailed for China 
the following June. " She was a pioneer female missionary, the 
first that ever brought the v)ord of salvation to those of her sex at 
Canton." She died at the age of twenty-eight. 



510 APPENDIX. 

The following notices of her character are from the correspond- 
ence of the Baptist Register, and are illustrative of the estimation 
in which she was held. 

" Her mind was of a very superior order, and under the culti- 
vation bestowed upon it exhibited a richness and maturity not 
often seen. Her form and features were such as to attract the 
notice and secure the admiration of all. These advantages were 
rendered doubly interesting by * the ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit.' " 

" She had moved in a circle where her society was cultivated 
and prized. In the church, she was the loved of all. The dif- 
ferent societies connected with the First Church depended much 
on her prudence and zeal. The poor blessed her name. Having 
pecuniary means, and being unincumbered with children, she 
made the hearts of the widow, the fatherless, and the afflicted, to 
rejoice." 

" She did not enter upon the missionary life with any romantic 
expectations, — she had counted the cost, — she knew what she 
would have to sacrifice. She loved her friends, she loved the 
church to which she belonged, she loved, she venerated her pas- 
tor. Her heart was formed for society, and with the husband of 
her choice, and troops of admiring friends, she enjoyed the 
world, with the best and highest relish. The world had never 
incurred her hate ; but the love of Christ constrained her to sac- 
rifice the pleasures of this life, that the Chinese might be 
saved.' " — [Baptist Missionary Magazine.^ 



APPENDIX. 511 

F. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN. 

The era of Congregationalism in New York dates from the for- 
mation of tlie present Broadway Tabernacle Church. Prior to that 
time there had existed in the city several feeble Congregational 
churches, some of which hardly lived long enough to have a his- 
tory, or even a name. Most of these enterprises were frustrated 
by unforeseen circumstances, mainly in consequence of the ex- 
traordinary pecuniaiy embarrassments of the times, involving 
many of the leading Christian men of this city in ruin. Only one 
or two of this class remain. The Broadway Tabernacle Church 
was established on a firm basis, and for a time was the only strong 
and healthy Congregational church in New York. Its prosperity 
demonstrated the fact that Congregationalism could flourish on 
this soil ; and awakened the numerous friends of this system of 
church polity, the sons of New England, residing in New York 
and Brooklyn, to the importance of having churches in which 
they could worship God after the manner of their fathers. Ac- 
cordingly in the winter of 1844 (January 29th) a number of gen- 
tlemen in Brooklj'n, partly at the instance, and by the personal 
influence of Mr. Hale, formed the Church of the Pilgrims, and 
erected a substantial and imposing edifice of stone, (at a cost of 
$65,000) on the corner of Henry and Remsen streets. To this 
enterprise Mr. Hale contributed |2, 000. Tins church is free from 
debt, and in a highly flourishing condition, under the ministry of 
the Rev. R. S. Storrs, Jr. 



In June, 1845, a small Presbyterian church in the North- 
eastern part of Biooklyn Iiaving dissolved, several of its members 
united with others in forming a Congregational church, which in- 
vited Rev. I. N. Sprague, of Hartford, to become its pastor. This 
church, which took the style of the " Second Congregational," 
erected a neat and commodious edifice on Bridge street, near 
Myrtle avenue, toward which Mr. Hale contributed six hundred 
dollars. Few churches have had a more rapid and healthy 
growth than this. 

On the 12th April, 1846, a church was organized in the upper 
part of the city of New York, under the name of the Church of the 
Puritans. It embraced several gentlemen of wealth, and enter- 



512 APPENDIX. 

priso. who were warmly attached to Contrrogntional principle*, and 
who dosiiod that those principle^; should be titly represented in the 
midst of the prominent churches of this great metropolis. Rev. 
G. B. Cheever, D.D.. was inst;dled the pastor of this church, 
soon after its organization, and a site was procured on Union 
Place, where an elegant editice of marble wiis erected, at a cost 
of about ^oo-Ol^O, which was entirely paid for by subscrip- 
tion. In this enterprise, Mr. Hale felt a deep interest, luid indeed, 
he did much to originate the whole movement. He subscribed 
$2,500 towarvi the erection of the house. 



In the year "1847. the church edifice on Cninborry-street, Brook- 
lyn, occupied by the First Presbyterian Church (^Rev. Dr. Cox's), 
was otlered tor s;ile, — the congregation being about to remove to 
anotlier location. — and was bought by Mr. Hale, in connection 
with two gentlemen of the Church of the Pilgrims. (^Messi-s. H. 
C. Bowen and 8. B. Hunt,"! for about twenty thousand dollars. 
A new church was organized in June of that year, under the 
name of the Plymouth Church, which took possession of this 
building, and invited Rev. H. W. Beecher to become its pjvstor, 
undir whose ministry a large congregation has been gathered, 
and the church has greatly increjvsed. During the pn^sent year, 
a large and neat edifice, with ample arrangements for lectui-e- 
room. Sabbath-school rooms, I'cc.. has been erected in ]ilace of the 
old one, which W!is in part destroyed by fire in January last. 
The new church fronts on Orange-street ; it is wholly piiid for. 

In February, 1848, the Madison-street Church. Xew York, 
(Presbyterian,") changed its organization, and adopted the Congre- 
gational form of go\ernment, under the name of the Eastern Con- 
gregational Church, 'riiis change w;is made with givat unanimi- 
ty, and has been followed with liappy results. Mr. Hale agived 
to pay one hundred dollai-s per annum for five rears, toward the 
support of the pjistor of the church. Its athiirs are now in a pro- 
mising condition under the ministry of Rev. A. B. Crocker. 

About the same time a church was organized on Clinton avenue, 
BrookiNU. over which Kev. D. C. Lansing. D.D.. was installed 
pastor. A lot was purchased and a small building erected tor 
temporary use. to be hereafter occupied jis a lecture-room. Mr. 
Hale contributed proportionally to this enterprise. The churcu 
hiis had a gradual and steady increase, and must eventually be- 
come a position of importimce. 



APPENDIX. 513 

A similar enterprise has been commenced under favorable 
auspices, on Bedford avenue, Brooklyn, where a small church has 
been organized, and a neat house of worship erected, free from 
debt. Mr. Hale was one of the original subscribers to the purchase 
of the lot on which this building stands. The rapid growth of the 
neighborhood will insure at, this point, as on Clinton avenue, a 
large and substantial congregation. 



In the autumn of 1848, the new and elegant edifice on the 
corner of Hammond and Fac'tory streets. New York, erected by 
the Hammond-street Presbyterian Oiiuivh, Avas bought at public 
auction by Messrs. S. B. Hunt and H. C. Bowen, for about fif- 
teen thousand dollars. Public worship was sustained in the 
house for several weeks under the direction of the proprietors ; 
and in the month of November a church was organized under the 
name of the Hammond-stieet Congregational Church, and an 
ecclesiastical society formed, to which the property was trans- 
ferred. Rev. W. Patton, D.D., was subsequently installed jiastor 
of the church. The congregation is already large, and its 
finances are in a prosperous condition. Tiie enliM-prise has been 
successful beyond tlie most sanguine expectations of its friends, 
and may be regarded as established on a permanent basis. As 
this whole movement was made during the illness of Mr. Hale, 
he had no part in it personally, though it gave him great satisfac- 
tion. 



One or two other churches remain to be spoken of. The 
Fourth Congregational t^hurch in New York, which was formed 
in 184;^, after struggling, in faitii and patience, with many trials, 
sometimes meeting in a hall, sometimes in a private house, some- 
times ready to disband — has at length procured, on f;ivoiablc 
terms, a neat and comfortable house of worship in Sixteenth- 
stnu't, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, and has encour- 
aging prospects of success. This feeble church was an object of 
the sympathy and benefactions of Mr. Hal«i. 

The First Free Congregational Church, worshiping in Chrys- 
tle-street, was a remnant of the church formerly worshiping in 
the Ciiatham-street Chapel. It has always had to contend with 
pecuniarv t'mbarrassnu'Uts and popular prejudices ; and notwith- 
standing the zeal, perseverance, and self-denial of its members, 
may be compelled to yield to the force of circumstances, 
and disband. Mr. Hale gave large sums of money to tliis 



614 APPENDIX. 

church, and just previous to his last ilhiess, he had devised a plan 
to extricate it from all embarrassment, which, had he lived, would 
probably have been successful. 



Mr. Hale supported from his own puree a missionary, who 
traveled through Western New York to look after the interests 
of feeble Congregational churches ; and another in Michigan, 
who labored for the same object. The latter was subsequently 
maintained by the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut, 
and Mr. Hale contributed the amount of his salary toward the 
erection of a church in Detroit. In one of his letters on the sub- 
ject, he says, " I am thankful that God has given me the means 
of being a small society myself until larger things can be brought 
into operation." Alluding to the denominational aspect of these 
efforts, he remarks, " I do not intend to be bigoted about reli- 
gious matters, for it is that which I wish to overthrow. But as 
I cannot help all denominations, and can exhaust all my resources 
on what I deem most useful, I think it right to labor pretty ex- 
clusively for the ' best gifts.' " 



It has been already stated that Mr. Hale paid six hundred dol- 
lars a year, for two years, for the support of Rev. H. L. Ham- 
mond as pastor of the Congregational Church in Detroit. When 
first applied to for this purpose, he wrote to Mr. Hammond as 
follows : 



" There is only one way to answer a proposition so full of important 
benefits. So long as God gives me money, and opens such doors of use- 
fulness for it, I know what He intends to have me do with it. I have not 
had time to confer much with friends. One gentleman said he would 
pay a tenth. I shall see others; but whether I get help or not, I will 
be responsible for the amount, and you may draw on me quarterly for 
the amount, if, upon a more careful inquiry into the facts, you think it 
best to undertake, as I have no doubt you will, and I trust the Lord 
will bless you in this great labor." 

In a subsequent letter he says, " I rejoice with you in the 
prosperity which God is giving to our efforts. It is most re- 
markable, trulv, and I bless Hira that He allows me the privi- 
lege of having anything to do in labors so successful and so use- 
ful. I have paid your two diafts with much satisfaction." 

Again he writes, " I pray that God may continue His blessing, 
and grant it in still larger measure, so that the next reports may 
be much more joyful. But if they are much less so, there will 



APPENDIX. 515 

be no cause for discouragement. The good that is done is not 
always immediately apparent, though it does seem to be the 
case now that the harvest is ripe for the sickle. I feel that mine 
is the humblest part in the work, but I am thankful for any 
part." 

The Congregational church in Detroit is in a highly prosper- 
ous condition, and the other agencies for good which Mr. Hale set 
in motion at the West, are still at work. There is no means of 
ascertaining the gross amount of his contributions to promote the 
cause of Christ at home and abroad ; while his more private cha- 
rities have their record only in the grateful remembrance of the 
beneficiaries, and with Him who rewards each act of kindness to 
a disciple, as done unto Himself. 



INDEX TO THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 



Abolition, 180, 197, 214. 

" in the Churches, 213. 

Abolitionism, Use of, 235. 
Abolitionists, The, 209. 

" and the A.B.C.F.M.,224. 

" Orer-acting Against, 201. 

" Philadelphia, 209. 
Abstract, Expedient and, 457. 
Acknowledging God, 408. 
Adam and Eve, Painting of, 421. 
Alliance, Evangelical, 337. 
Alton Riot, 203, 204. 
American Board and Abolitionists, 

224. 
Anti-Slavery, Jay on, 191. 
" Meeting, 187. 



B. 



Beecher, on Christian Union, 

290. 
Bequest, Munificent, 450. 
Betting on Elections, 458. 
Bible or no Bible, 378. 
Bishop Hughes and the Puritans, 

390. 
Breach of the Sabbath, 404. 
Broomstick Strikes, 418. 
Business Principles, 432. 
Butchery, A National, 409. 



C. 



Carolina, South, Nullification, 

464. 
Catholics, The, 363. 

" Protection Against, 372. 
Rebellious, 370. 
Catholic Magazine, 348. 
" Reforms, 369. 
" Service, 375. 
Charitable Institutions, Grants to, 
894. 



Charlestown Nunnery, 456. 
Christ, The True Church of, 310. 
Christian Union, 290, 337. 
Christmas Service, 373. 
Church, Officers of the, 252, 266. 
Church Pews, 445. 
Church Politics, 373. 
Church Polity, 238. 

" and the Pre.ss, 269. 
" Rights of the, 276. 
" State and Family, 307. 
The True, 310. 
What is it .' 260. 
" Where is it .' 428. 
We've found it, 308 
Churches, Abolition in, 213 
" Division of, 215. 
" in New York and Brook- 
lyn, 511. 
" and Politics, 278. 
" Relation of Paators to, 
301. 
Civil and Religious Liberty, 371. 
Closing Stores on Sabbath, 406. 
Coat, Old Threadbare, 236. 
Cock-a-doodle-do, 464. 
Cold Water Dinners, 401. 
Colleges, and College Funds, 175. 

" and the State, 178. 
Colonization, 180. 

" Review of Jay on, 191. 
Society, 183. 
Communion, Slavery at the, 196. 
Confirmation, 445. 
Congregational Churches in New 
York and Brooklyn, 511. 
" Home Missions, 247, 249. 
Polity, 325, 331. 
Union, 279. 
Congregationalism, 288. 

" out of New England, 255 
" Principles of, 325. 
" Punchard on, 274. 
" Success of, 256. 
Congregationalist, The, 241 



518 



INDEX, 



CoQTention, Michigan City, 294, 
" Syracuse, 229. 

Correspondence, App. D., 496. 

Country, Our, " Right or Wrong," 
465. 

Courage, Moral, 449. 

Cross on Trinity Church, 440. 

Crying Newspapers on the Sab- 
bath, 405. 

D. 

Devan, Mrs. Lydia, App. E., 509. 
Dissolution of the Union, 198. 
Doctors of Divinity, 447. 
Domination, Ecclesiastical, 239. 

E. 

Ecclesiastical Bodies and Sla- 
very, 233. 
" Domination, 239. 
" Legislation, 304, 335. 
" Polity, 325. 

Questions, 238. 
Regulation, 285. _ 
Economy, Industry and, 417, 
Efforts, Mistaken, 173. 
Elections, Betting on, 458. 
Eloquence, 448. 
Employers, Laborers and, 416. 
Episcopacy and Puritanism, 272. 
Evangelical Alliance, 337. 
Excitement, 463. 

" at the North and South, 198. 
Expedient and Abstract, 457. 



Facts, Liberia, 183. 
Family Government, 455. 
Family The, 307. 
Fardels, Semi-lunar, 448. 
Farm, Vote Yourself a, 412, 
Fathers, The Pilgrim, 384. 
Female Strikes, 418. 
Female Wages, 419. 
French Revolution, 471, 
Funds, College, 175. 

" Permanent, 158. 
Funeral Expenses, 183, 

G. 

God Acknowledged, 408. 



Gospel, How to Spread the, 473, 
Government, Church, 325. 
" Family, 455. 

Self, 438. 
Grace, Ordinary Means of, 306. 
Grants to Charitable Institutions, 

394. 
Greek Slave, Powers', 422. 

H. 

Hale, Rev. John, [App. A.] 493. 

" Mrs. Lydia, [App. C] 495. 

« Nathan, [App. B] 494. 

Hammond, Gov., on Slavery, 217. 

Home Missions, Congregational, 

247, 249. 
How to Spread the Gospel, 473. 
Hughes, Bishop, Among the Puri- 
tans, 390. 



I. 



Incenbiarism, 188, 

Independence, 470. 

Industry and Economy, 417. 

Institutions, Grants to Charitable, 
394. 

Institutions, Literary and Reli- 
gious, 171. 

J. 

Jat on Colonization, 191, 
L. 

Laborers and Employers, 416. 
Laws, Usury, 459. 
Legislation, Ecclesiastical, 304, 335, 
Letters of Mr. Hale, [App._D.] 496 

" Gov. Hammond, 217. 

" On the Theater, 147 
Lewis, Professor Tayler, on the 

State, 435 
Liberalitv, Protestant, 377. 
Liberia Facts, 183, 
Liberty, 467, 

Civil, 371. 

" and Licentiousness, 440. 

" Religious, 371. 

" Romanism and, 382. 

" Tyranny of, 468 
Licentiousness, 440. 
Literary Institutions, 171. 



IKOE X. 



519 



M. 

Mail, The, 464. 

Means of Grace, 306. 

Mexican War, 478, 485. 

Michigan City Convention, 294. 

Miracles, 462. 

Mistaken Eiforts, 173. 

Mobs, 461. 

Moral Coura^, 449. 

Morals of Rulers, 442. 

Munificent Bequest, 460. 

N. 

Names and Words, 260. 
National Butchery, 409. 
New England Society, 270. 
Newspapers, Sunday, 405. 
Nullification, 464. 



O. 



Officers of the Church, 252, 266. 
Ordinary Means of Grace, 306. 
Ordination, 262. 
" Our Country, Right or Wrong," 

465. 
Over-acting Against Abolitionists, 

201. 



Pastors, Relation of to Churches, 

301. 
Pennsylvania Hall, 209. 
Permanent Funds, 158. 
Personal Rights, 439. 
Petition, Right of, 205. 
Pews, Church, 445. 
Pictures, [Adam and Eve,] 421. 
Pilgrims' Dav, 388. 
Pilgrim Fathers, 384. 
Pious Slaveholders, 186. 
Plan of Union, 259, 294. 
Platform, Saybrook, 331. 
Politics in Churches, 238, 278- 

" and Religion, 456. 

" Trade of, 433. 
Polity, Church, 238. 
Poor, Provision for the, 396. 
Pope, The Poor, 366. 
Popery, Prospects of, 366. 
Posthumous Praise, 452. 
Preaching, 260. 
Presbyterians, Union with, 267. 



Press The, and the Church, 269. 
Principles of Business, 432. 
Profaneness, 445. 
Prospects of Popery, 366. 
Protection against Catholics, 372. 
Protestant Liberality, 377. 
Public Taste, 421. 
Punchard on Congregationalism, 

274. 
Purgatory, 364. 

Puritanism and Episcopacy, 272. 
Puritans, Bishop Hughes Amontr, 

390. * 



Q. 



Quackery, 460. 

R. 

Radicalism, 202. 
Reformation, Temperance, 401. 
Reformers, National, 412. 
Reforms, Catholic, 869. 
Regulation, Ecclesiastical, 285.' 
Religion and Politics, 456. 

" and Sectarianism, 284. 
Religious Institutions, 171. 

Liberty, 371. 
Respect, Tokens of, 451. 
Right of Petition, 205. 
Rights of the Church, 276. 
Personal, 439. 
" of Women, 453. 
Riot, Alton, 203, 204. 
Romanism, 344. 

and Liberty, 382. 
Tendencies of, 380. 
Rulers, Morals of, 442. 

S. 

Sabbath, Breach of the, 404 

" Newspapers, sold on, 405. 
" Stores, closed on, 406. 
♦' Traveling on, 404, 477. 

Saintship, a Claim to, 477. 

Saybrook Platform, 331. 

School Question, 364. 

Schools, Sectarian, 349, 353, 358. 

Sectarian Schools, 349, 353, 358. 

Sectarianism, 284, 442. 

Self-Government, 438. 

Semi-lunar Fardels, 448. 

Slave, The Greek, 422. 

Slarery, 180. 



520 



INDEX. 



Slavery at the Communion, 196. 

" and Ecclesiastical Bodies, 
215, 233. 

" Gov. Hammond on, 217. 

" and Metaphysics of, 236. 
Smoking, 447. 
Spread of the Gospel, 473. 
State, The, 435. 

" and the Colleges, 178. 

" Church and Family, 307. 
Strange Bird, 462. 
Strikes, Broomstick, 418. 
St. Patrick's Society, 454. 
Syracuse Convention, 229. 

T. 

Taste, The Public, 421. 
Temperance Reformation, 401. 
Tendencies of Romanism, 380. 
Theater, Letters on the, 147. 
Tokens of Respect, 451. 
Trades' Unions, 414, 415. 
Trade of Politics, 433. 
Trinity Church Cross, 443, 



True Church of Christ, 810. 
Tyranny of Liberty, 468. 



Union, Christian, 290, 337. 

" Congregational, 279. 

«' Dissolution of, 198. 

" Plan of, 259, 294. 
Unions, Trades', 415. 
,Use of Abolitionism, 235. 
Usury Laws, 459. 



Vote Yourself a Farm, 412. 

W. 

Wages, Female, 419. 
War, the Mexican, 478, 485. 
What of the Night ? 471. 
Witchcraft, 494. 
Women, Rights of, 453. 
Words and Names, 260. 



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